IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/fininn/v7y2021i1d10.1186_s40854-021-00294-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are suspicious activity reporting requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges effective?

Author

Listed:
  • Daehan Kim

    (Sungkyunkwan University)

  • Mehmet Huseyin Bilgin

    (Istanbul Medeniyet University)

  • Doojin Ryu

    (Sungkyunkwan University)

Abstract

This study analyzes the impact of a newly emerging type of anti-money laundering regulation that obligates cryptocurrency exchanges to report suspicious transactions to financial authorities. We build a theoretical model for the reporting decision structure of a private bank or cryptocurrency exchange and show that an inferior ability to detect money laundering (ML) increases the ratio of reported transactions to unreported transactions. If a representative money launderer makes an optimal portfolio choice, then this ratio increases further. Our findings suggest that cryptocurrency exchanges will exhibit more excessive reporting behavior under this regulation than private banks. We attribute this result to cryptocurrency exchanges’ inferior ML detection abilities and their proximity to the underground economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Daehan Kim & Mehmet Huseyin Bilgin & Doojin Ryu, 2021. "Are suspicious activity reporting requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges effective?," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:fininn:v:7:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s40854-021-00294-6
    DOI: 10.1186/s40854-021-00294-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s40854-021-00294-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s40854-021-00294-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Ferwerda Joras, 2009. "The Economics of Crime and Money Laundering: Does Anti-Money Laundering Policy Reduce Crime?," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 903-929, December.
    3. Borri, Nicola & Shakhnov, Kirill, 2020. "Regulation spillovers across cryptocurrency markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    4. Shanaev, Savva & Sharma, Satish & Ghimire, Binam & Shuraeva, Arina, 2020. "Taming the blockchain beast? Regulatory implications for the cryptocurrency Market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    5. Donato Masciandaro, 1999. "Money Laundering: the Economics of Regulation," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 225-240, May.
    6. McCarthy, Killian J. & van Santen, Peter & Fiedler, Ingo, 2015. "Modeling the money launderer: Microtheoretical arguments on anti-money laundering policy," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 148-155.
    7. Ahmad Chokor & Élise Alfieri, 2021. "Long and short-term impacts of regulation in the cryptocurrency market," Post-Print hal-03275473, HAL.
    8. Chokor, Ahmad & Alfieri, Elise, 2021. "Long and short-term impacts of regulation in the cryptocurrency market," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 157-173.
    9. Kane, Edward J, 1988. "Interaction of Financial and Regulatory Innovation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(2), pages 328-334, May.
    10. Hio Loi, 2018. "The Liquidity of Bitcoin," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(1), pages 13-22, January.
    11. Rainer Böhme & Nicolas Christin & Benjamin Edelman & Tyler Moore, 2015. "Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(2), pages 213-238, Spring.
    12. Dwyer, Gerald P., 2015. "The economics of Bitcoin and similar private digital currencies," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 81-91.
    13. Sean Foley & Jonathan R Karlsen & Tālis J Putniņš, 2019. "Sex, Drugs, and Bitcoin: How Much Illegal Activity Is Financed through Cryptocurrencies?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1798-1853.
    14. Smales, L.A., 2019. "Bitcoin as a safe haven: Is it even worth considering?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 385-393.
    15. Brian D Feinstein & Kevin Werbach, 2021. "The Impact of Cryptocurrency Regulation on Trading Markets," Journal of Financial Regulation, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 48-99.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peter Fratrič & Giovanni Sileno & Sander Klous & Tom Engers, 2022. "Manipulation of the Bitcoin market: an agent-based study," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-29, December.
    2. Almaqableh, Laith & Reddy, Krishna & Pereira, Vijay & Ramiah, Vikash & Wallace, Damien & Francisco Veron, Jose, 2022. "An investigative study of links between terrorist attacks and cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 177-188.
    3. Jaemin Son & Mehmet Huseyin Bilgin & Doojin Ryu, 2022. "Consumer choices under new payment methods," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, December.

    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. Zhang, Pengcheng & Xu, Kunpeng & Qi, Jiayin, 2023. "The impact of regulation on cryptocurrency market volatility in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic — evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 222-246.
    2. Lucia dalla Pellegrina & Giorgio Di Maio & Donato Masciandaro & Margherita Saraceno, 2020. "Organized crime, suspicious transaction reporting and anti-money laundering regulation," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(12), pages 1761-1775, December.
    3. Copestake, Alexander & Furceri, Davide & Gonzalez-Dominguez, Pablo, 2023. "Crypto market responses to digital asset policies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    4. Brini, Alessio & Lenz, Jimmie, 2024. "Pricing cryptocurrency options with machine learning regression for handling market volatility," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    5. Parthajit Kayal & Purnima Rohilla, 2021. "Bitcoin in the economics and finance literature: a survey," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(7), pages 1-21, July.
    6. Aurelio F. Bariviera & Ignasi Merediz‐Solà, 2021. "Where Do We Stand In Cryptocurrencies Economic Research? A Survey Based On Hybrid Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 377-407, April.
    7. Baur, Dirk G. & Cahill, Daniel & Godfrey, Keith & (Frank) Liu, Zhangxin, 2019. "Bitcoin time-of-day, day-of-week and month-of-year effects in returns and trading volume," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 78-92.
    8. Raffaella Barone & Donato Masciandaro & Friedrich Schneider, 2022. "Corruption and money laundering: You scratch my back, i’ll scratch yours," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 318-342, February.
    9. Dyhrberg, Anne H. & Foley, Sean & Svec, Jiri, 2018. "How investible is Bitcoin? Analyzing the liquidity and transaction costs of Bitcoin markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 140-143.
    10. Arkorful, Gideon Bruce & Chen, Haiqiang & Gu, Ming & Liu, Xiaoqun, 2023. "What can we learn from the convenience yield of Bitcoin? Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 141-153.
    11. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Woo-Young Kang, 2020. "Bitcoin Price Co-Movements and Culture," CESifo Working Paper Series 8076, CESifo.
    12. Griffith, Todd & Clancey-Shang, Danjue, 2023. "Cryptocurrency regulation and market quality," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    13. Alessio Brini & Jimmie Lenz, 2024. "A comparison of cryptocurrency volatility-benchmarking new and mature asset classes," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 1-38, December.
    14. Andrew Detzel & Hong Liu & Jack Strauss & Guofu Zhou & Yingzi Zhu, 2021. "Learning and predictability via technical analysis: Evidence from bitcoin and stocks with hard‐to‐value fundamentals," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(1), pages 107-137, March.
    15. Laura Alessandretti & Abeer ElBahrawy & Luca Maria Aiello & Andrea Baronchelli, 2018. "Anticipating Cryptocurrency Prices Using Machine Learning," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-16, November.
    16. Hu, Yang & Hou, Yang (Greg) & Oxley, Les & Corbet, Shaen, 2021. "Does blockchain patent-development influence Bitcoin risk?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    17. 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.
    18. Bampinas, Georgios & Panagiotidis, Theodore, 2024. "How would the war and the pandemic affect the stock and cryptocurrency cross-market linkages?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PA).
    19. Daniel Tut, 2022. "Bitcoin: Future or Fad?," Springer Books, in: Thomas Walker & Frederick Davis & Tyler Schwartz (ed.), Big Data in Finance, pages 133-157, Springer.
    20. Shanaev, Savva & Sharma, Satish & Ghimire, Binam & Shuraeva, Arina, 2020. "Taming the blockchain beast? Regulatory implications for the cryptocurrency Market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cryptocurrency; Cryptocurrency exchange; Financial regulation; Money laundering; Portfolio choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

    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:spr:fininn:v:7:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s40854-021-00294-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.