Cryptocurrencies: An Economic Perspective

Are cryptocurrencies indeed currencies? Anecdotal evidence on the volatility of cryptocurrency prices suggest that these “currencies” are not a good store of value, and similarly the time delays in validating and publishing crypto-based transactions suggest that they are not a good medium of exchange either. Due to the context it is defined in, it seems to not follow social conventions of fiat currencies. In this thesis, we undertake a systematic evaluation of how much do cryptocurrency prices behave like fiat currency prices, focusing on the predominant cryptocurrency — Bitcoin. We test the usefulness of various time series and structural models to predict future changes in Bitcoin prices and conclude that when predicting out of sample, its price is as unpredictable as fiat currency prices. Since cryptocurrencies generally have no central authority and hence receive no regulation, we explore its country-dependent characteristics, and find that the overall conclusions apply. We also examine if nominal interest rate differentials denominated in fiat currencies versus Bitcoin predict exchange rate movements, and find that in addition to the persistent violation in short-run, interest parity suggest that Bitcoin price has not been rising fast enough. We conclude that we have to refine the definition of monetary parameters on cryptocurrencies to better capture its properties, but as far as our examination indicates, the price of the predominant cryptocurrencies behaves similarly to most fiat currencies. In our point of view, Bitcoin is a currency.