> Jane Streeter before their polycule ran off to do the kimchi arbitrage and later found FTX.

what does any of that mean?

* She worked at Jane Street.

* She and a few other people were in relationships with SBF and/or each other at the time. A polycule is generally a connected graph of n > 2 people (the nodes) in romantic/sexual relationships (the edges).

* The kimchi arbitrage was a trade where you bought BTC for USD somewhere other than Korea, transferred them from the non-Korean exchange to a private wallet, then sold those BTC for Won in Korea, and then sold those Won for USD (and repeat the cycle). It worked because Korea had strict capital controls for its citizens that meant that the price of bitcoins on native exchanges was substantially higher than outside. It also carried tremendous risk because you had to wait for those bitcoins to settle in your private wallet at each cycle, effectively exposing you to risk associated with fluctuations in the bitcoin price.

Physical movement in and out of South Korea is part of the Kimchi arbitrage, so you have to "run off" to do it.

Thanks for the translation. Now that I understand what what the commenter said, I agree.

> kimchi arbitrage

Is this a real thing, or just a finance joke I just don't understand?

So it's both a real thing, and a finance joke I didn't understand!

I love a good arbitrage technique, but this one really just reads like an excuse to go to South Korea with your friends (or your polycule).

There was potentially a lot of profit as Bitcoin traded for 10-20% more in S Korea and the liquidity in the market was in the billions. The tricky bit would be once you've sold your Bitcoins for Korean Won, how easy would it have been to change the Won back to USD given S Korea had capital controls at the time. I'm not sure how many you could get away with changing by going there as a tourist. Probably a limited amount. Not sure if anyone knows how much?

My understanding of this trade is that you can trade unlimited amounts of Won for USD as a person outside of Korea (beyond the jurisdiction of the Korean government), and as a non-Korean you can bring out an unlimited number of Won as long as you don't carry it as cash. However, this is all a set of "loopholes" that aren't exactly illegal but aren't explicitly legal, which is why no reputable bank or trading firm could do this trade.

The risk that you end up getting banned from entering Korea for doing this trade too much was real, but I don't think anyone who tried this trade faced any of the possible consequences.