I've worked in trading for a while now, and after talking to a could people specifically about bitcoin, inter-exchange arbitrage isn't as big as it should be. T

I've worked in trading for a while now, and after talking to a could people specifically about bitcoin, inter-exchange arbitrage isn't as big as it should be. The issues tend to be around clearing and counterparty risk (BTC on two different exchanges have different prices reflecting the difficulty in moving BTC off the exchange). There is a lot of friction in BTC movement which really shouldn't exist. Also you assume exchanges operating financial information is open and trusted which is definitely not the case. It's easy for the exchange to paint the tape with false trades and it doesn't cost them anything. A large player getting a fee discount can self trade without much loss either. I don't think the order books are to be trusted with these BTC venues.