Is Bitcoin Really Untethered?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Griffin, John M.; Shams, Amin
• 署名单位: University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; University System of Ohio; Ohio State University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1082
• DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12903
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 1913-1964
• 关键词: DEMAND CURVES; manipulation; stocks; price; DYNAMICS

摘要

This paper investigates whether Tether, a digital currency pegged to the U.S. dollar, influenced Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices during the 2017 boom. Using algorithms to analyze blockchain data, we find that purchases with Tether are timed following market downturns and result in sizable increases in Bitcoin prices. The flow is attributable to one entity, clusters below round prices, induces asymmetric autocorrelations in Bitcoin, and suggests insufficient Tether reserves before month-ends. Rather than demand from cash investors, these patterns are most consistent with the supply-based hypothesis of unbacked digital money inflating cryptocurrency prices.