The market seems calm today, but there is a detail worth pondering— the inter-exchange price difference of BTC suddenly jumped to a level of 250-300U. I checked the contract quotes of several major exchanges one by one, and the maximum price difference was close to 300U. Such anomalies rarely occur in normal market conditions.

Why is the price difference so exaggerated? On the surface, it seems to be due to uneven liquidity distribution, but deeper issues in the market are being exposed. The order volume for the best buy and sell prices on certain exchanges has suddenly dropped, while other platforms are seeing a surge in large orders, which clearly indicates a repositioning of capital. More critically, the continuous widening of the price difference suggests that there is a problem with the arbitrage mechanism—under normal circumstances, arbitrageurs would immediately eliminate such price differences, but if it persists, it could be due to soaring on-chain transfer costs or withdrawal restrictions making it unprofitable.

There are three signals behind this that cannot be ignored: first, large funds are deliberately testing market depth to see how retail investors are willing to follow the trend and the strength of the opposing positions; second, there is extreme divergence in sentiment between exchanges, with some platforms' users being overly bullish while others are gathering pessimistic shorts, and this split will inevitably lead to price dislocations; third, the price spread itself is a leading indicator of volatility, and historical data has repeatedly proven that abnormal price spreads often signal that significant market movements are about to occur.

The market appears calm, but this unusual price difference precisely indicates that there are undercurrents flowing beneath.