IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/liu/liucec/2019-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Policy issues on crypto-assets

Author

Listed:
  • Carlo Gola
  • Andrea Caponera

Abstract

This paper describes the economic characteristics of crypto-assets and the regulation of the exchanges and custodian wallet providers adopted in various jurisdictions. The possible accounting and prudential treatments are then analysed. The paper provides a taxonomy of DLT digital tokens based on mutually exclusive classes. Bitcoin belongs to the class of private digital tokens with no underlining claim or liability against an issuer, exchangeable at a floating rate, which operate through an electronic protocol called permissionless distributed ledger technology (DLT). The literature on the subject shows that this type of crypto-assets do not fall within the category of money and financial instruments. The instability of their price must be considered when evaluating these instruments from an accounting and prudential point of view. The paper describes the basic features of initial coin offerings (ICOs), smart contracts, and other related aspects.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo Gola & Andrea Caponera, 2019. "Policy issues on crypto-assets," LIUC Papers in Economics 2019-7, Cattaneo University (LIUC).
    • Handle: RePEc:liu:liucec:2019-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.biblio.liuc.it/wp/wp7/wp7.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schilling, Linda & Uhlig, Harald, 2019. "Some simple bitcoin economics," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 16-26.
    2. 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.
    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. Rotolo, Daniele & Hicks, Diana & Martin, Ben R., 2015. "What is an emerging technology?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1827-1843.
    5. Arash Aloosh & Geert Bekaert, 2022. "Currency Factors," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(6), pages 4042-4064, June.
    6. Guntram B. Wolff & Maria Demertzis, 2018. "The economic potential and risks of crypto assets- is a regulatory framework needed?," Policy Contributions 27194, Bruegel.
    7. Carlo Gola & Marco Burroni & Francesco Columba & Antonio Ilari & Giorgio Nuzzo & Onofrio Panzarino, 2017. "Shadow banking out of the shadows: non-bank intermediation and the Italian regulatory framework," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 372, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    8. David Yermack, 2013. "Is Bitcoin a Real Currency? An economic appraisal," NBER Working Papers 19747, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Huberman, Gur & Leshno, Jacob & Moallemi, Ciamac C., 2017. "Monopoly Without a Monopolist: An Economic Analysis of the Bitcoin Payment System," CEPR Discussion Papers 12322, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. 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.).
    11. Barry Eichengreen, 2020. "From Commodity to Fiat and Now to Crypto: What Does History Tell Us?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Bernard Yeung (ed.), DIGITAL CURRENCY ECONOMICS AND POLICY, chapter 4, pages 17-39, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    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. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Morten Linnemann Bech & Rodney Garratt, 2017. "Central bank cryptocurrencies," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    17. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2017_027 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Cheah, Eng-Tuck & Fry, John, 2015. "Speculative bubbles in Bitcoin markets? An empirical investigation into the fundamental value of Bitcoin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 32-36.
    19. Nicole Jonker, 2018. "What drives bitcoin adoption by retailers," DNB Working Papers 585, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    20. Aleksander Berentsen & Fabian Schär, 2018. "The Case for Central Bank Electronic Money and the Non-case for Central Bank Cryptocurrencies," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 100(2), pages 97-106.
    21. Eric Budish, 2018. "The Economic Limits of Bitcoin and the Blockchain," NBER Working Papers 24717, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Raphael Auer & Stijn Claessens, 2018. "Regulating cryptocurrencies: assessing market reactions," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    23. 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.
    24. 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.
    25. Adrian (Wai-Kong) Cheung & Eduardo Roca & Jen-Je Su, 2015. "Crypto-currency bubbles: an application of the Phillips-Shi-Yu (2013) methodology on Mt. Gox bitcoin prices," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(23), pages 2348-2358, May.
    26. Amstad, Marlene, 2019. "Regulating Fintech: Objectives, Principles, and Practices," ADBI Working Papers 1016, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    27. 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.
    28. Ruttenberg, Wiebe & Pinna, Andrea, 2016. "Distributed ledger technologies in securities post-trading - Revolution or evolution?," Occasional Paper Series 172, European Central Bank.
    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. Carlo Gola & Johannes Sedlmeir, 2022. "Addressing the Sustainability of Distributed Ledger Technology," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 670, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    2. Carlo Gola & Valentina Cappa & Patrizio Fiorenza & Paolo Granata & Federica Laurino & Lorenzo Lesina & Francesco Lorizzo & Gabriele Marcelli, 2023. "The governance of blockchains and system based on distributed ledger technology," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 773, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

    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. 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.
    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. 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.
    4. Borgonovo, Emanuele & Caselli, Stefano & Cillo, Alessandra & Masciandaro, Donato & Rabitti, Giovanni, 2021. "Money, privacy, anonymity: What do experiments tell us?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    5. 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.
    6. Dionysopoulos, Lambis & Marra, Miriam & Urquhart, Andrew, 2024. "Central bank digital currencies: A critical review," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. 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.
    8. Grym, Aleksi, 2018. "The great illusion of digital currencies," BoF Economics Review 1/2018, Bank of Finland.
    9. Emanuele Borgonovo & Stefano Caselli & Alessandra Cillo & Donato Masciandaro & Giovanno Rabitti, 2018. "Cryptocurrencies, central bank digital cash, traditional money: does privacy matter?," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1895, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    10. Lim, King Yoong & Liu, Chunping & Zhang, Shuonan, 2024. "Optimal central banking policies: Envisioning the post-digital yuan economy with loan prime rate-setting," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    11. Raphael Auer, 2019. "Beyond the doomsday economics of "proof-of-work" in cryptocurrencies," BIS Working Papers 765, Bank for International Settlements.
    12. Zimmerman, Peter, 2020. "Blockchain structure and cryptocurrency prices," Bank of England working papers 855, Bank of England.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Theodore Pelagidis & Eleftheria Kostika, 2022. "Investigating the role of central banks in the interconnection between financial markets and cryptoassets," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(3), pages 481-507, September.
    17. Raphael Auer, 2019. "Embedded supervision: how to build regulation into blockchain finance," BIS Working Papers 811, Bank for International Settlements.
    18. Donato Masciandaro, 2018. "Central Bank Digital Cash and Cryptocurrencies: Insights from a New Baumol–Friedman Demand for Money," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 51(4), pages 540-550, December.
    19. Christie Smith & Aaron Kumar, 2018. "Crypto‐Currencies – An Introduction To Not‐So‐Funny Moneys," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1531-1559, December.
    20. Hanna Halaburda & Guillaume Haeringer & Joshua Gans & Neil Gandal, 2022. "The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 971-1013, September.

    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:liu:liucec:2019-7. 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: Laura Ballestra (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/liuccit.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.