Is the price of Pi coins in Pakistan higher than the global average? According to the data monitoring in the first quarter of 2024, the pi coin price in pakistan in the over-the-counter (OTC) market of Pakistan has continuously shown a premium phenomenon. According to CoinGecko statistics, the global average price of Pi coin has remained stable at 0.10 US dollars (approximately 28 PKR), but the median actual transaction volume of P2P platforms in Lahore and Karachi has reached 34 PKR, with a premium rate of 21.4%. This disparity stems from local supply shortages – active miners in Pakistan account for only 2% of the global network, while the user density is as high as 1,200 per million people. The demand pressure has continuously pushed the price curve upward.
Regulatory barriers have exacerbated the widening of price spreads. After the Central Bank of Pakistan banned banks from handling crypto transactions in 2023, the volume of transactions through compliant channels plummeted by 70%, and the commission rate in the over-the-counter market soared from 1% to 8%. For example, in the case of a certain exchange broker in Islamabad, large transactions of more than 10,000 PKR required an additional 5% risk premium, resulting in the actual cost being 26% higher than the global average price. In contrast, the transaction fees of US-compliant platforms such as BitMart are only 0.25%, and the depth of the US dollar liquidity pool is 50 times that of the Pakistani rupee market, reducing the slippage to 0.3%.
The local economic environment has also pushed up prices. Due to the 2024 energy crisis, the Pakistani rupee has depreciated by 15% against the US dollar, while the demand for Pi as a safe-haven asset has soared. Data analysis shows that for every 1% decline in the rupee exchange rate, the correlation coefficient of the local Pi coin price increase reaches 0.8. In Rawalpindi’s on-site research, users were willing to pay a high price of 38 PKR for quick transactions, which was 35% higher than the quotations on European exchanges during the same period. This kind of emotional premium is also common in the historical fluctuations of bitcoin. For instance, in 2018, the bitcoin price in Venezuela was 300% higher than the global average.
Technological limitations further distort the market. The average Internet speed in Pakistan is only 8.7Mbps (the global average is 35Mbps), which has extended the arbitrage window to 15 minutes. The FIA Cybersecurity Report in March 2024 pointed out that the probability of local users being defrauded by false quotations reached 12%. A certain fraud gang defrauded price differences through a delayed quotation system, with the highest single case involving 500,000 PKR. In contrast, in high-speed network regions such as Germany, the speed at which prices return to the global average is controlled within two minutes.
Overall assessment shows that the price of Pi coin in Pakistan does indeed have a systemic premium, averaging 18% to 25% higher than the global average. However, the actual gains are offset by security costs: local users have to bear an average of 3% transfer loss and 5% time cost. It is recommended to refer to the aggregated data from CoinMarketCap and make a comprehensive judgment in combination with the quotations from local compliant OTC platforms (such as LocalCoinSwap) to avoid the risk of irrational spreads of more than 25%.