IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bdi/opques/qef_484_19.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic and regulatory aspects of crypto-assets

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Caponera

    (Bank of Italy)

  • Carlo Gola

    (Bank of Italy)

Abstract

TIn this study, we investigate the economic characteristics of bitcoin and similar crypto-assets. Following an introduction to the blockchain protocol, the role of exchanges and of digital wallet providers, we consider the regulatory measures adopted in various jurisdictions. Lastly, we examine the accounting and prudential aspects related to crypto-assets, of which significant uncertainties still remain. The paper provides a taxonomy of crypto-assets, and describes the basic features of the initial coin offerings (ICOs) and related aspects. The literature shows that bitcoin, and similar crypto-assets, do not fully fall within the category of money and financial instruments. This class of digital tokens, based on a permissionless distributed ledger technology (DLT), is highly volatile and absent of intrinsic value. The instability of their price, which is often undetermined, must be considered when evaluating these instruments from an accounting and prudential standpoint.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Caponera & Carlo Gola, 2019. "Economic and regulatory aspects of crypto-assets," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 484, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_484_19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2019-0484/QEF_484_19.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pavel Ciaian & Miroslava Rajcaniova & d’Artis Kancs, 2016. "The economics of BitCoin price formation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(19), pages 1799-1815, April.
    2. Michel Rauchs & Garrick Hileman, 2017. "Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study," Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance Reports 201704-gcbs, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    3. De Filippi, Primavera & Loveluck, Benjamin, 2016. "The invisible politics of Bitcoin: governance crisis of a decentralised infrastructure," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 5(3), pages 1-28.
    4. Beat Weber, 2016. "Bitcoin and the legitimacy crisis of money," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 40(1), pages 17-41.
    5. Gola, Carlo & Ilari, Antonio, 2015. "Financial innovation oversight: a policy framework," Journal of Financial Perspectives, EY Global FS Institute, vol. 3(1), pages 59-100.
    6. Rotolo, Daniele & Hicks, Diana & Martin, Ben R., 2015. "What is an emerging technology?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1827-1843.
    7. Maria Demertzis & Guntram B. Wolff, 2018. "The economic potential and risks of crypto assets- is a regulatory framework needed?," Policy Contributions 27194, Bruegel.
    8. Dong He & Karl F Habermeier & Ross B Leckow & Vikram Haksar & Yasmin Almeida & Mikari Kashima & Nadim Kyriakos-Saad & Hiroko Oura & Tahsin Saadi Sedik & Natalia Stetsenko & Concha Verdugo Yepes, 2016. "Virtual Currencies and Beyond; Initial Considerations," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 16/3, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Marc Gronwald, 2014. "The Economics of Bitcoins - Market Characteristics and Price Jumps," CESifo Working Paper Series 5121, CESifo.
    10. Dong He & Ross B Leckow & Vikram Haksar & Tommaso Mancini Griffoli & Nigel Jenkinson & Mikari Kashima & Tanai Khiaonarong & Celine Rochon & Hervé Tourpe, 2017. "Fintech and Financial Services; Initial Considerations," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 17/05, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Anton Badev & Maria Baird & Timothy Brezinski & Clinton Chen & Max Ellithorpe & Linda Fahy & Vanessa Kargenian & Kimberley Liao & Brendan Malone & Jeffrey C. Marquardt & David C. Mills & Wendy Ng & An, 2016. "Distributed Ledger Technology in Payments, Clearing, and Settlement," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2016-095, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    12. Michael D. Bordo & Andrew T. Levin, 2017. "Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 23711, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Sha Wang & Jean-Philippe Vergne, 2017. "Buzz Factor or Innovation Potential: What Explains Cryptocurrencies’ Returns?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    14. Rodney Garratt & Neil Wallace, 2018. "Bitcoin 1, Bitcoin 2, ....: An Experiment In Privately Issued Outside Monies," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1887-1897, July.
    15. Morten Linnemann Bech & Rodney Garratt, 2017. "Central bank cryptocurrencies," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    16. Nicole Jonker, 2018. "What drives bitcoin adoption by retailers," DNB Working Papers 585, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlo Gola & Andrea Caponera, 2019. "Policy issues on crypto-assets," LIUC Papers in Economics 2019-7, Cattaneo University (LIUC).
    2. Julián A. Parra & Carlos Arango - Joaquín Bernal & José E. Gómez - Javier Gómez & Carlos León - Clara Machado & Daniel Osorio - Daniel Rojas & Nicolás Suárez - Eduardo Yanquen, 2019. "Criptoactivos: análisis y revisión de literatura," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, issue 92, pages 1-37, November.
    3. Flori, Andrea, 2019. "News and subjective beliefs: A Bayesian approach to Bitcoin investments," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 336-356.
    4. Helder Miguel Correia Virtuoso Sebastião & Paulo José Osório Rupino Da Cunha & Pedro Manuel Cortesão Godinho, 2021. "Cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Overview and future perspectives," International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 21(3), pages 305-342.
    5. Anil Savio Kavuri & Alistair Milne, 2019. "FinTech and the future of financial services: What are the research gaps?," CAMA Working Papers 2019-18, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    6. Andrea Flori, 2019. "Cryptocurrencies In Finance: Review And Applications," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(05), pages 1-22, August.
    7. Arto Kovanen, 2019. "Competing With Bitcoin - Some Policy Considerations for Issuing Digitalized Legal Tenders," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, July.
    8. Agur, Itai & Ari, Anil & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni, 2022. "Designing central bank digital currencies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 62-79.
    9. Aniruddha Dutta & Saket Kumar & Meheli Basu, 2020. "A Gated Recurrent Unit Approach to Bitcoin Price Prediction," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, February.
    10. Zhou, Siwen, 2018. "Exploring the Driving Forces of the Bitcoin Exchange Rate Dynamics: An EGARCH Approach," MPRA Paper 89445, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Laura Alessandretti & Abeer ElBahrawy & Luca Maria Aiello & Andrea Baronchelli, 2018. "Anticipating Cryptocurrency Prices Using Machine Learning," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-16, November.
    12. Marcelo A. T. Aragão, 2021. "A Few Things You Wanted to Know about the Economics of CBDCs, but were Afraid to Model: a survey of what we can learn from who has done," Working Papers Series 554, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    13. Alexandra Mitschke, 2021. "Central Bank Digital Currencies and Monetary Policy Effectiveness in the Euro Area," Working Papers Dissertations 74, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    14. Wolfgang Karl Härdle & Campbell R Harvey & Raphael C G Reule, 2020. "Understanding Cryptocurrencies," The Journal of Financial Econometrics, Society for Financial Econometrics, vol. 18(2), pages 181-208.
    15. Serif Dilek, 2019. "Cryptocurrencies in the Digital Era: The Role of Technological Trust and Its International Effects," Contributions to Economics, in: Umit Hacioglu (ed.), Blockchain Economics and Financial Market Innovation, chapter 0, pages 453-474, Springer.
    16. Grym, Aleksi, 2018. "The great illusion of digital currencies," BoF Economics Review 1/2018, Bank of Finland.
    17. Abeer ElBahrawy & Laura Alessandretti & Anne Kandler & Romualdo Pastor-Satorras & Andrea Baronchelli, 2017. "Evolutionary dynamics of the cryptocurrency market," Papers 1705.05334, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2017.
    18. Wolfgang Karl Hardle & Campbell R. Harvey & Raphael C. G. Reule, 2020. "Editorial: Understanding Cryptocurrencies," Papers 2007.14702, arXiv.org.
    19. Juan Carlos Henao & Liliana López-Jiménez, 2021. "Disrupción tecnológica, transformación digital y sociedad. Tomo IV, Aires de revolución : nuevos desafíos tecnológicos a las instituciones económicas, financieras y organizacionales de nuestros tiempo," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1283, October.
    20. Laura Alessandretti & Abeer ElBahrawy & Luca Maria Aiello & Andrea Baronchelli, 2018. "Anticipating cryptocurrency prices using machine learning," Papers 1805.08550, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2018.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    bitcoin; crypto-assets; blockchain; digital tokens; initial coin offerings; exchanges;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E40 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - General
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • K20 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - General
    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_484_19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdigvit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.