IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2106.11446.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Bitcoin's Crypto Flow Network

Author

Listed:
  • Yoshi Fujiwara
  • Rubaiyat Islam

Abstract

How crypto flows among Bitcoin users is an important question for understanding the structure and dynamics of the cryptoasset at a global scale. We compiled all the blockchain data of Bitcoin from its genesis to the year 2020, identified users from anonymous addresses of wallets, and constructed monthly snapshots of networks by focusing on regular users as big players. We apply the methods of bow-tie structure and Hodge decomposition in order to locate the users in the upstream, downstream, and core of the entire crypto flow. Additionally, we reveal principal components hidden in the flow by using non-negative matrix factorization, which we interpret as a probabilistic model. We show that the model is equivalent to a probabilistic latent semantic analysis in natural language processing, enabling us to estimate the number of such hidden components. Moreover, we find that the bow-tie structure and the principal components are quite stable among those big players. This study can be a solid basis on which one can further investigate the temporal change of crypto flow, entry and exit of big players, and so forth.

Suggested Citation

  • Yoshi Fujiwara & Rubaiyat Islam, 2021. "Bitcoin's Crypto Flow Network," Papers 2106.11446, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2106.11446
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2106.11446
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hideaki Aoyama, 2021. "XRP Network and Proposal of Flow Index," Papers 2106.10012, arXiv.org.
    2. Daniel D. Lee & H. Sebastian Seung, 1999. "Learning the parts of objects by non-negative matrix factorization," Nature, Nature, vol. 401(6755), pages 788-791, October.
    3. Berry, Michael W. & Browne, Murray & Langville, Amy N. & Pauca, V. Paul & Plemmons, Robert J., 2007. "Algorithms and applications for approximate nonnegative matrix factorization," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 155-173, September.
    4. Teh, Yee Whye & Jordan, Michael I. & Beal, Matthew J. & Blei, David M., 2006. "Hierarchical Dirichlet Processes," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 101, pages 1566-1581, December.
    5. Grün, Bettina & Hornik, Kurt, 2011. "topicmodels: An R Package for Fitting Topic Models," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 40(i13).
    6. Rubaiyat Islam & Yoshi Fujiwara & Shinya Kawata & Hiwon Yoon, 2019. "Analyzing outliers activity from the time-series transaction pattern of bitcoin blockchain," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 239-257, June.
    7. D'aniel Kondor & M'arton P'osfai & Istv'an Csabai & G'abor Vattay, 2013. "Do the rich get richer? An empirical analysis of the BitCoin transaction network," Papers 1308.3892, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2014.
    8. Dániel Kondor & Márton Pósfai & István Csabai & Gábor Vattay, 2014. "Do the Rich Get Richer? An Empirical Analysis of the Bitcoin Transaction Network," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(2), pages 1-10, February.
    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. Hideaki Aoyama, 2021. "XRP Network and Proposal of Flow Index," Papers 2106.10012, arXiv.org.
    2. Andreas Thiemann, 2021. "Cryptocurrencies: An empirical view from a Tax Perspective," JRC Working Papers on Taxation & Structural Reforms 2021-12, Joint Research Centre.

    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. Rubaiyat Islam & Yoshi Fujiwara & Shinya Kawata & Hiwon Yoon, 2021. "Unfolding identity of financial institutions in bitcoin blockchain by weekly pattern of network flows," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 131-157, April.
    2. M. Moghadam & K. Aminian & M. Asghari & M. Parnianpour, 2013. "How well do the muscular synergies extracted via non-negative matrix factorisation explain the variation of torque at shoulder joint?," Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 291-301.
    3. Ayana T Aspembitova & Ling Feng & Lock Yue Chew, 2021. "Behavioral structure of users in cryptocurrency market," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(1), pages 1-19, January.
    4. Alexandre Bovet & Carlo Campajola & Jorge F. Lazo & Francesco Mottes & Iacopo Pozzana & Valerio Restocchi & Pietro Saggese & Nicol'o Vallarano & Tiziano Squartini & Claudio J. Tessone, 2018. "Network-based indicators of Bitcoin bubbles," Papers 1805.04460, arXiv.org.
    5. Carlo Campajola & Marco D'Errico & Claudio J. Tessone, 2022. "MicroVelocity: rethinking the Velocity of Money for digital currencies," Papers 2201.13416, arXiv.org, revised May 2023.
    6. Ke Wu & Spencer Wheatley & Didier Sornette, 2018. "Classification of cryptocurrency coins and tokens by the dynamics of their market capitalisations," Papers 1803.03088, arXiv.org, revised May 2018.
    7. Ladislav Kristoufek, 2015. "What Are the Main Drivers of the Bitcoin Price? Evidence from Wavelet Coherence Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-15, April.
    8. Jianfei Cao & Han Yang & Jianshu Lv & Quanyuan Wu & Baolei Zhang, 2023. "Estimating Soil Salinity with Different Levels of Vegetation Cover by Using Hyperspectral and Non-Negative Matrix Factorization Algorithm," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-15, February.
    9. Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2018. "On Bitcoin markets (in)efficiency and its evolution," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 503(C), pages 257-262.
    10. Martins, Francisco Leonardo Bezerra & do Nascimento, José Cláudio, 2022. "Power law dynamics in genealogical graphs," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 596(C).
    11. Serdar Neslihanoglu, 2021. "Linearity extensions of the market model: a case of the top 10 cryptocurrency prices during the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, December.
    12. Nick James & Kevin Chin, 2021. "On the systemic nature of global inflation, its association with equity markets and financial portfolio implications," Papers 2111.11022, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    13. Jiaqi Liang & Linjing Li & Daniel Zeng, 2018. "Evolutionary dynamics of cryptocurrency transaction networks: An empirical study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, August.
    14. Jiaqi Liang & Linjing Li & Daniel Zeng, 2018. "Evolutionary dynamics of cryptocurrency transaction networks: An empirical study," Papers 1808.08585, arXiv.org.
    15. Espinoza-Licona, David R. & Pérez-Sosa, Felipe A., 2019. "El bitcoin, ¿una burbuja especulativa? Análisis de la estabilidad paramétrica de series de tiempo para el periodo 2009-2018," eseconomía, Escuela Superior de Economía, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, vol. 14(51), pages 45-60, Segundo s.
    16. Takehiro Sano & Tsuyoshi Migita & Norikazu Takahashi, 2022. "A novel update rule of HALS algorithm for nonnegative matrix factorization and Zangwill’s global convergence," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 755-781, November.
    17. Massimiliano Zanin & David Papo & Miguel Romance & Regino Criado & Santiago Moral, 2016. "The topology of card transaction money flows," Papers 1605.04938, arXiv.org.
    18. 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.
    19. Duy Khuong Nguyen & Tu Bao Ho, 2017. "Accelerated parallel and distributed algorithm using limited internal memory for nonnegative matrix factorization," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 307-328, June.
    20. Lars Steinert & Christian Herff, 2018. "Predicting altcoin returns using social media," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    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:arx:papers:2106.11446. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.