Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Should Cryptocurrency And Nft’S Be Used As Collateral?, John M. Helmanis

Honors Theses and Capstones

Nothing has captured the attention of modern finance quite like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFT), whether it’s the massive skyrocketing price or the next day's sudden drop wiping out millions of dollars seemingly overnight. This paper seeks to understand cryptocurrencies and NFT's position in modern finance in terms of collateral. Specifically, the question that will be answered is should cryptocurrencies and NFTs be used as collateral? This question has relevance because widespread use as collateral would signify validation as an asset class that holds value. Some cryptocurrency brokers are making loans backed by cryptocurrency, but currently, no major banks are …

A Reexamination Of The Illiquidity Premium In Cryptocurrencies, Wyatt Fitz

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In this study, I examine the illiquidity premium amongst the 372 most actively traded cryptocurrencies from September 2014 to May 2021. I find that the average returns on the most illiquid cryptocurrencies are larger than those on the most liquid cryptocurrencies. My results are robust to different weighting mechanisms for the market index and to various asset pricing model specifications. These results suggest that an investor might be able to go long a portfolio of illiquid cryptocurrencies while simultaneously shorting a portfolio of liquid cryptocurrencies to effectively generate a positive risk-adjusted return.

The Volatility Implications Of The Chinese Cryptocurrency Ban, Keaton Manwaring

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In this paper, I examine the effect of the May 18^th, 2021 Chinese ban of cryptocurrency transactions on the overall volatility of the cryptocurrency market. To do this, I analyze, in both univariate and multivariate settings, range-based volatility in various event windows surrounding the event. I find clear economic and statistical change in volatility in the five days after the ban. In the ten-day period after the ban, there is a moderate economic change in volatility. In the forty-day period after the ban, there is little economic change in volatility. I conclude that the Chinese ban had a …

Cross-Cryptocurrency Return Predictability, Li Guo, Bo Sang, Jun Tu, Yu Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using the minute-frequency data on Binance, we find strong evidence of cross-cryptocurrency return predictability. The lagged returns of other cryptocurrencies serve as significant predictors of focal cryptocurrencies up to ten minutes, in line with slow information diffusion. The results are robust across various methods, including the adaptive LASSO and principal component analysis. Furthermore, a long-short portfolio formed on the past returns of cryptocurrencies can generate a daily return of 2.16% out-of-sample after accounting for transaction costs, indicating sizable economic value of cross-cryptocurrency return predictability.

Asia Embraces Digital Currency And Cryptocurrency, David Kuo Chen Lee

Asian Management Insights

A decade ago, everyone was sceptical about cryptocurrency. Today, Asian governments are harnessing its technology to raise payment efficiency and improve financial inclusion. Initially, the technology was advocated and harnessed by ‘cypherpunks’, that is, individuals who advocate the use of cryptography and other strong encryption technologies to promote social and political change. At that time, being a cypherpunk meant standing on the opposite side of the government; today, I see cypherpunks, otherwise more appropriately known as cryptopunks, working closely with governments.

Making Money From Cryptocurrency? The Taxman May Call On You, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Miners, forgers, hobbyists, traders – different rules apply. Just don’t assume crypto investment is somehow immune to taxation.

Fall/Winter 2021

Business Exchange

Flexibility Is Our New Norm; $8 Million Bequest Supports Student Scholarships; Women in Entrepreneurship Institute Partnership Supports Business Founders of Color; College Named a Bloomberg Experiential Learning Partner; MacArthur Foundation Grant Supports Housing Research; Navigating the New Workplace Norms; Professor Introduces Students to Fintech Innovations; Accounting Graduate Brews Coffee Business with Soul

Do Investor Sentiments Drive Cryptocurrency Prices?, Erdinc Akyildirim, Ahmet Faruk Aysan, Oguzhan Cepni, Pinar Darendeli

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper studies the dynamic network connectedness between cryptocurrency returns and sentiments using the novel cryptocurrency-specific MarketPsych sentiment data for 13 cryptocurrencies with the highest market capitalization. The results indicate the dominance of cryptocurrencies with higher market capitalization and information transmission from cryptocurrency returns to sentiments. Our results also show that Bitcoin is losing its dominance to alt-coins in return spillovers while still dominant in sentiment spillovers.

Bitcoin, Intrinsic Value, And Herd Effect, Angel Enrique Chico-Frias

DLSU Business & Economics Review

The intrinsic value of a good may be related to its production costs, so its price will never be less than this. Bitcoin prices can have behaviors similar to those existing in nature. The research aims to find similar behaviors between herds in the animal world and Bitcoin prices. Besides, the study analyzes the cost of production to determine if it is the intrinsic value of this cryptocurrency. Three scenarios in Bitcoin prices in the Momentum indicator were studied. The ANOVA and Tuckey test were helpful to find if the Momentum averages are related. The Momentum Index data worked with …

Bitcoin As A Viable Alternative To Legacy Reserve Assets: Reasons, Risks, And Adoption, Jeffry Blake Dunson Ii

Senior Honors Theses

Reserve assets include commodities, currencies, or other capital held by institutions as a hedge against the fluctuations of external factors. While the United States’ rise to power helped establish the US dollar as the most predominant reserve asset of the past fifty years, current events & the fast pace of technological advancement has exposed some limitations in the system. Blockchain technology has allowed for assets with cryptographically verifiable integrity that fundamentally depart from the US dollar standard and has potential to overhaul reserve assets as we know it. The course of this research details the downsides of legacy reserve assets, …

Bitcoin: The Pioneer Of Cryptocurrency With A Limited Dream, Anna M. Gellerman, Benjamin Zheng

Publications and Research

BitCoin is the most well known and adaptable cryptocurrency today. Due to the evolvement of the cryptocurrency market, many are thinking what this could mean for society; is the world ready for a new mainstream medium of exchange? This poster argues that although BitCoin is functional for small scale payments, it is inadaptable to become a payment tool comparable to cash and card.

The Budding Disruption Of Blockchain Technology Upon The Current Structure Of The Music Industry, Bradley Rauman

Senior Theses

One of the most pertinent opportunities within the music industry, and many other industries as well, stems from the use of blockchain technology. Blockchain’s core technology, which enables smart contracts and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), could be used to restructure and decentralize the music industry to be in alignment with the best interests of artists - the individuals responsible for driving the success of this industry.

The current system is outmoded. It evinces a disparity in the level of information held by artists and intermediaries (i.e. labels, publishers, and streaming services) and this disparity enables intermediaries to deduct egregious fees that …

Traceable Monero: Anonymous Cryptocurrency With Enhanced Accountability, Yannan Li, Guomin Yang, Wily Susilo, Yong Yu, Man Ho Au, Dongxi Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Monero provides a high level of anonymity for both users and their transactions. However, many criminal activities might be committed with the protection of anonymity in cryptocurrency transactions. Thus, user accountability (or traceability) is also important in Monero transactions, which is unfortunately lacking in the current literature. In this paper, we fill this gap by introducing a new cryptocurrency named Traceable Monero to balance the user anonymity and accountability. Our framework relies on a tracing authority, but is optimistic, in that it is only involved when investigations in certain transactions are required. We formalize the system model and security model …

Rise Of The Machines? Intraday High-Frequency Trading Patterns Of Cryptocurrencies, Alla A Petukhina, Raphael C. G. Reule, Wolfgang Karl Hardle

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

This research analyses high-frequency data of the cryptocurrency market in regards to intraday trading patterns related to algorithmic trading and its impact on the European cryptocurrency market. We study trading quantitatives such as returns, traded volumes, volatility periodicity, and provide summary statistics of return correlations to CRIX (CRyptocurrency IndeX), as well as respective overall high-frequency based market statistics with respect to temporal aspects. Our results provide mandatory insight into a market, where the grand scale employment of automated trading algorithms and the extremely rapid execution of trades might seem to be a standard based on media reports. Our findings on …

A False Sense Of Security: How Congress And The Sec Are Dropping The Ball On Cryptocurrency, Tessa E. Shurr

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Today, companies use blockchain technology and digital assets for a variety of purposes. This Comment analyzes the digital token. If the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) views a digital token as a security, then the issuer of the digital token must comply with the registration and extensive disclosure requirements of federal securities laws.

To determine whether a digital asset is a security, the SEC relies on the test that the Supreme Court established in SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. Rather than enforcing a statute or agency rule, the SEC enforces securities laws by applying the Howey test on a fact-intensive …

The Substantial Growth Of Shadow Banking, Financial Technology And Digital Currency And Their Respective Roles In Shaping The Next Financial Crisis, Vardhan S. Chulani Mr.

Undergraduate Economic Review

Based on Goldman Sachs’ model and the state of current affairs, an underlying possibility of a financial crisis occurring in the foreseeable future does exist. This could be due to ongoing trade war and negotiations with different countries, the new policies introduced by political parties and their respective impacts, high amounts of corporate and student debts along with auto loans in the economy, thus indicating signs of excessive leverage and resulting in depressing consumer confidence. International issues such as Brexit, the existing currency and debt crisis with Turkey, and China’s debt bubble could also contribute to the global growth slowdowns. …

Cryptocurrencies: An Overview, Investment Investigation, Comparative Analysis, And Regulatory Proposals, Jacob Franzen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

With cryptocurrencies moving out of obscurity and into the public eye, the initial purpose of this research paper is to provide the history of cryptocurrencies, to explain the complex workings in and around cryptocurrencies, investigate their investment potential, and to draw attention to their potential for misuse. To follow, the primary purpose is to create a platform on which to compare cryptocurrencies with more common mediums of exchange, analyze their current international regulatory climate, highlight their trends within influential nations, discuss their pending and future regulation, and provide personal proposals for additional regulation. Due to the complex nature of the …

Fintech Regulations In The United States Compared To Regulations In Europe And Asia, Victoria Williams

Honors College Theses

Fintech, or financial technology, is an up and coming industry and yet at the same time has been around since the 1950s. In Europe and Asia, there has been a lot of innovation, and lawmakers have been forced to keep up with regulating the rapidly growing industry. However, the United States has not risen to the occasion of properly regulating this industry and can learn from countries in Europe and Asia on how to effectively regulate fintech. This essay explains generally what fintech is, why it must be properly regulated, how countries in Europe and Asia regulate it, and how …

Understanding Cryptocurrencies, Wolfgang Karl Hardle, Campbell R. Harvey, Raphael C. G. Ruele

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

Cryptocurrency refers to a type of digital asset that uses distributed ledger, or blockchain, technology to enable a secure transaction. Although the technology is widely misunderstood, many central banks are considering launching their own national cryptocurrency. In contrast to most data in financial economics, detailed data on the history of every transaction in the cryptocurrency complex are freely available. Furthermore, empirically oriented research is only now beginning, presenting an extraordinary research opportunity for academia. We provide some insights into the mechanics of cryptocurrencies, describing summary statistics and focusing on potential future research avenues in financial economics.

Automated Theme Search In Ico Whitepapers, Chuanjie Fu, Andrew Koh, Paul Griffin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The authors explore how topic modeling can be used to automate the categorization of initial coin offerings (ICOs) into different topics (e.g., finance, media, information, professional services, health and social, natural resources) based solely on the content within the whitepapers. This tool has been developed by fitting a latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model to the text extracted from the ICO whitepapers. After evaluating the automated categorization of whitepapers using statistical and human judgment methods, it is determined that there is enough evidence to conclude that the LDA model appropriately categorizes the ICO whitepapers. The results from a two-population proportion test …

Nonprofit Reputation And Bitcoin Use, Crystal A. Evans, Abigail B. Schneider

Journal of Ideology

In recent years, cryptocurrencies, digital assets used as mediums of exchange that use cryptography to secure the creation and exchange of the currency, have gained in popularity. One cryptocurrency in particular, Bitcoin, has received a considerable amount of attention in the media. As the general public’s awareness of Bitcoin increases, one must consider the impact that aligning a nonprofit with such a currency could have. The present research uses three studies to examine the impact that advertising the nonprofits’ alignment with Bitcoin has on perceived effectiveness as well as potential donors’ attitudes toward investing nonprofits’ assets in the currency. Results …

Two Essays On Bitcoin Price And Volume, Mohammad Bayani Khaknejad

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Bitcoin is a decentralized peer to peer digital transactions system that was introduced in 2009 in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Since its introduction, it has had a volatile journey, being adopted by computer programmers, cyber punk enthusiasts, criminals, and financial investors. While the future of bitcoin is still not clear, it has been widely adopted by many, not necessarily as a new method of transactions, but rather as a new investment vehicle. Being a new asset class, there are many unknown financial characteristics to be investigated about bitcoin and in this dissertation, we try to explore two of …

Establishing Cryptocurrency Equilibria Through Game Theory, Carey Caginalp, Gunduz Caginalp

ESI Publications

We utilize optimization methods to determine equilibria of cryptocurrencies. A core group, the wealthy, fears the loss of assets that can be seized by a government. Volatility may be influenced by speculators. The wealthy must divide their assets between the home currency and the cryptocurrency, while the government decides the probability of seizing a fraction the assets of this group. We establish conditions for existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibria. Also examined is the separate timescale problem in which the government policy cannot be reversed, while the wealthy can adjust their allocation in reaction to the government’s designation of probability.

Establishing An Asia-Pacific Cryptocurrency Hub, Arnat Leemakdej, Chiyachantana N. Chiraphol

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Asia is leading the way in digital asset markets, but individual countries are taking markedly different paths toward regulation and management in establishing themselves as cryptocurrency hubs, balancing innovation and regulation. Investors should be vigilant about the risks associated with alternative capital-raising methods.

Cryptocurrencies: Their Current Validity And Future As Currency And As A Part Of An Investment Strategy, Austin R. Johnson

Senior Theses

This paper examines the current and future prospects of cryptocurrencies with a focus on the most well-known and highest valued cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Specifically, it will address how Bitcoin can be utilized as a currency and as part of an investment strategy and whether its utilization makes financial sense now and will in the future. The paper showcases the past behavior of Bitcoin, how the Bitcoin system functions, how Bitcoin acts as a currency, how Bitcoin can be used as an investment asset, and why it will continue to be employed as such in the future. This paper will show that …

Cryptovisor: A Cryptocurrency Advisor Tool, Matthew Baldree, Paul Widhalm, Brandon Hill, Matteo Ortisi

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, we present a tool that provides trading recommendations for cryptocurrency using a stochastic gradient boost classifier trained from a model labeled by technical indicators. The cryptocurrency market is volatile due to its infancy and limited size making it difficult for investors to know when to enter, exit, or stay in the market. Therefore, a tool is needed to provide investment recommendations for investors. We developed such a tool to support one cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, based on its historical price and volume data to recommend a trading decision for today or past days. This tool is 95.50% accurate with …

The Wider Impact Of A National Cryptocurrency, Dennis Ng, Paul Griffin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study looks at the impact of a national cryptocurrency on the payment landscape in the midst of the rise of globalpublic cryptocurrencies and interest from central banks in a possible national cryptocurrency. The impacts are analysed for consumers, merchants, banks,payment providers, international money transfer operators and central banks.The study analyses the pros and cons for each player with an overall impactranking. There is a particular emphasis on central banks as they hold key regulatory oversight for economic and financial matters affecting a country.Whilst finding that there is an overall benefit, there are also significant risks. A sandbox approach is …

Illustrating The Contrasts Of Initial Coin Offerings And Initial Public Offerings, Adam Jones

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper explores the intricacies of an Initial Coin Offering and how it differs from an Initial Public Offering, specifically in terms of its process, regulations, utility, performance, and risks. The paper begins with an introduction to cryptocurrencies that includes the development of Bitcoin to more recent developments, in order to give readers the proper background knowledge to understand Initial Coin Offerings. The paper then describes the differences between a coin and a token. Finally the paper lays out the characteristics of an Initial Coin Offerings and then compares those characteristics with that of an Initial Public Offering.

Cryptocurrency: A New Investment Opportunity?, David Kuo Chuen Lee, Li Guo, Yu Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to use blockchain and has been the market leader since the first bitcoin was mined in 2009. After the birth of Bitcoin with the genesis block, more than 1,000 altcoins and crypto-tokens have been created, with at least 919 trading actively on unregulated or registered exchanges. This entire class of cryptocurrencies and tokens has been classified by some tax authorities as having the same status as commodities. If cryptocurrency is viewed in the same class as commodities, how different is it in terms of its risk and return structure? This article sets out to help …

Flight To Quality In Cryptocurrencies, Scott Brockelbank Jr.

Honors Theses and Capstones

The topic of cryptocurrencies has been on the forefront of investors’ minds as they have seen ridiculous returns from the volatile swings in price. Its value highly debated because the asset is not backed by a hard asset. If we look back at the beginning of our country, we see how each state had its own currency and the difficulties that users faced around who would accept that as legal tender. The birth of a federal currency was accepted because it served as a medium of exchange and was backed by gold through the U.S. government. The final evolution of …