fbpx
Wikipedia

Cryptocurrency

A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto[a] is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.[2]

A logo for Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency
The genesis block of Bitcoin's blockchain, with a note containing The Times newspaper headline. This note has been interpreted as a comment on the instability caused by fractional-reserve banking.[1]: 18 

Individual coin ownership records are stored in a digital ledger, which is a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins, and verify the transfer of coin ownership.[3][4][5] Despite the term that has come to describe many of the fungible blockchain tokens that have been created, cryptocurrencies are not considered to be currencies in the traditional sense, and varying legal treatments have been applied to them in various jurisdicitons, including classification as commodities, securities, and currencies, cryptocurrencies are generally viewed as a distinct asset class in practice.[6][7][8] Some crypto schemes use validators to maintain the cryptocurrency. In a proof-of-stake model, owners put up their tokens as collateral. In return, they get authority over the token in proportion to the amount they stake. Generally, these token stakers get additional ownership in the token over time via network fees, newly minted tokens, or other such reward mechanisms.[9]

Cryptocurrency does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority. Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to a central bank digital currency (CBDC).[10] When a cryptocurrency is minted, created prior to issuance, or issued by a single issuer, it is generally considered centralized. When implemented with decentralized control, each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.[11]

The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was first released as open-source software in 2009. As of June 2023, there were more than 25,000 other cryptocurrencies in the marketplace, of which more than 40 had a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion.[12]

History

In 1983, American cryptographer David Chaum conceived of a type of cryptographic electronic money called ecash.[13][14] Later, in 1995, he implemented it through Digicash,[15] an early form of cryptographic electronic payments. Digicash required user software in order to withdraw notes from a bank and designate specific encrypted keys before it can be sent to a recipient. This allowed the digital currency to be untraceable by a third party.

In 1996, the National Security Agency published a paper entitled How to Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash, describing a cryptocurrency system. The paper was first published in an MIT mailing list[16] and later in 1997 in The American Law Review.[17]

In 1998, Wei Dai described "b-money", an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system.[18] Shortly thereafter, Nick Szabo described bit gold.[19] Like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that would follow it, bit gold (not to be confused with the later gold-based exchange BitGold) was described as an electronic currency system which required users to complete a proof of work function with solutions being cryptographically put together and published.

In January 2009, Bitcoin was created by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It used SHA-256, a cryptographic hash function, in its proof-of-work scheme.[20][21] In April 2011, Namecoin was created as an attempt at forming a decentralized DNS. In October 2011, Litecoin was released which used scrypt as its hash function instead of SHA-256. Peercoin, created in August 2012, used a hybrid of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake.[22]

Cryptocurrency has undergone several periods of growth and retraction, including several bubbles and market crashes, such as in 2011, 2013–2014/15, 2017–2018 and 2021–2023.[23][24]

On 6 August 2014, the UK announced its Treasury had commissioned a study of cryptocurrencies, and what role, if any, they could play in the UK economy. The study was also to report on whether regulation should be considered.[25] Its final report was published in 2018,[26] and it issued a consultation on cryptoassets and stablecoins in January 2021.[27]

In June 2021, El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, after the Legislative Assembly had voted 62–22 to pass a bill submitted by President Nayib Bukele classifying the cryptocurrency as such.[28]

In August 2021, Cuba followed with Resolution 215 to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.[29]

In September 2021, the government of China, the single largest market for cryptocurrency, declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal. This completed a crackdown on cryptocurrency that had previously banned the operation of intermediaries and miners within China.[30]

On 15 September 2022, the world's second largest cryptocurrency at that time, Ethereum transitioned its consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) in an upgrade process known as "the Merge". According to the Ethereum Founder, the upgrade can cut both Ethereum's energy use and carbon-dioxide emissions by 99.9%.[31]

On 11 November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd., a cryptocurrency exchange, which also operated a crypto hedge fund, and had been valued at $18 billion,[32] filed for bankruptcy.[33] The financial impact of the collapse extended beyond the immediate FTX customer base, as reported,[34] while, at a Reuters conference, financial industry executives said that "regulators must step in to protect crypto investors."[35] Technology analyst Avivah Litan commented on the cryptocurrency ecosystem that "everything...needs to improve dramatically in terms of user experience, controls, safety, customer service."[36]

Formal definition

According to Jan Lansky, a cryptocurrency is a system that meets six conditions:[37]

  1. The system does not require a central authority; its state is maintained through distributed consensus.
  2. The system keeps an overview of cryptocurrency units and their ownership.
  3. The system defines whether new cryptocurrency units can be created. If new cryptocurrency units can be created, the system defines the circumstances of their origin and how to determine the ownership of these new units.
  4. Ownership of cryptocurrency units can be proved exclusively cryptographically.
  5. The system allows transactions to be performed in which ownership of the cryptographic units is changed. A transaction statement can only be issued by an entity proving the current ownership of these units.
  6. If two different instructions for changing the ownership of the same cryptographic units are simultaneously entered, the system performs at most one of them.

In March 2018, the word cryptocurrency was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.[38]

Altcoins

After the early innovation of Bitcoin in 2008, and the early network effect gained by Bitcoin, tokens, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets that were not Bitcoin became collectively known during the 2010s as alternative cryptocurrencies,[39][40][41] or "altcoins."[42] Sometimes the term "alt coins" was used,[43][44] or disparagingly, "shitcoins".[45] Paul Vigna of The Wall Street Journal described altcoins in 2020 as "alternative versions of Bitcoin"[46] given its role as the model protocol for cryptocurrency designers. A Polytechnic University of Catalonia thesis in 2021 used a somewhat broader description. Not just as alternative versions of Bitcoin itself, but for any cryptocurrency other than bitcoin. "As of early 2020, there were more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies. Altcoin is the combination of two words "alt" and "coin" and includes all alternatives to Bitcoin."[42]: 14 

 
The logo of Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency

Altcoins often have underlying differences when compared to Bitcoin. For example, Litecoin aims to process a block every 2.5 minutes, rather than Bitcoin's 10 minutes, which allows Litecoin to confirm transactions faster than Bitcoin.[47] Another example is Ethereum, which has smart contract functionality that allows decentralized applications to be run on its blockchain.[48] Ethereum was the most used blockchain in 2020, according to Bloomberg News.[49] In 2016, it had the largest "following" of any altcoin, according to the New York Times.[50]

Significant market price rallies across multiple altcoin markets are often referred to as an "altseason".[51][52]

Stablecoins

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable level of purchasing power.[53] Notably, these designs are not foolproof, as a number of stablecoins have crashed or lost their peg. For example, on 11 May 2022, Terra's stablecoin UST fell from $1 to 26 cents.[54][55] The subsequent failure of Terraform Labs resulted in the loss of nearly $40B invested in the Terra and Luna coins.[56] In September 2022, South Korean prosecutors requested the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice against the company's founder, Do Kwon.[57] In Hong Kong, the expected regulatory framework for stablecoins in 2023/24 is being shaped and includes a few considerations.[58]

Architecture

Cryptocurrency is produced by an entire cryptocurrency system collectively, at a rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly stated. In centralized banking and economic systems such as the US Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency.[citation needed] In the case of cryptocurrency, companies or governments cannot produce new units, and have not so far provided backing for other firms, banks or corporate entities which hold asset value measured in it. The underlying technical system upon which cryptocurrencies are based was created by Satoshi Nakamoto.[59]

Within a proof-of-work system such as Bitcoin, the safety, integrity and balance of ledgers is maintained by a community of mutually distrustful parties referred to as miners. Miners use their computers to help validate and timestamp transactions, adding them to the ledger in accordance with a particular timestamping scheme.[20] In a proof-of-stake blockchain, transactions are validated by holders of the associated cryptocurrency, sometimes grouped together in stake pools.

Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually decrease the production of that currency, placing a cap on the total amount of that currency that will ever be in circulation.[60] Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies can be more difficult for seizure by law enforcement.[3]

Blockchain

The validity of each cryptocurrency's coins is provided by a blockchain. A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography.[59][61] Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block,[61] a timestamp and transaction data.[62] By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way".[63] For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority.

Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain.[64]

Nodes

A node is a computer that connects to a cryptocurrency network. The node supports the cryptocurrency's network through either relaying transactions, validation, or hosting a copy of the blockchain. In terms of relaying transactions, each network computer (node) has a copy of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency it supports. When a transaction is made, the node creating the transaction broadcasts details of the transaction using encryption to other nodes throughout the node network so that the transaction (and every other transaction) is known.

Node owners are either volunteers, those hosted by the organization or body responsible for developing the cryptocurrency blockchain network technology, or those who are enticed to host a node to receive rewards from hosting the node network.[65]

Timestamping

Cryptocurrencies use various timestamping schemes to "prove" the validity of transactions added to the blockchain ledger without the need for a trusted third party.

The first timestamping scheme invented was the proof-of-work scheme. The most widely used proof-of-work schemes are based on SHA-256 and scrypt.[22]

Some other hashing algorithms that are used for proof-of-work include CryptoNote, Blake, SHA-3, and X11.

Another method is called the proof-of-stake scheme. Proof-of-stake is a method of securing a cryptocurrency network and achieving distributed consensus through requesting users to show ownership of a certain amount of currency. It is different from proof-of-work systems that run difficult hashing algorithms to validate electronic transactions. The scheme is largely dependent on the coin, and there is currently no standard form of it. Some cryptocurrencies use a combined proof-of-work and proof-of-stake scheme.[22]

Mining

 
Hashcoin mine

On a blockchain, mining is the validation of transactions. For this effort, successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward. The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network. The rate of generating hashes, which validate any transaction, has been increased by the use of specialized machines such as FPGAs and ASICs running complex hashing algorithms like SHA-256 and scrypt.[66] This arms race for cheaper-yet-efficient machines has existed since Bitcoin was introduced in 2009.[66] Mining is measured by hash rate typically in TH/s.[67]

With more people entering the world of virtual currency, generating hashes for validation has become more complex over time, forcing miners to invest increasingly large sums of money to improve computing performance. Consequently, the reward for finding a hash has diminished and often does not justify the investment in equipment and cooling facilities (to mitigate the heat the equipment produces), and the electricity required to run them.[68] Popular regions for mining include those with inexpensive electricity, a cold climate, and jurisdictions with clear and conducive regulations. By July 2019, Bitcoin's electricity consumption was estimated to be approximately 7 gigawatts, around 0.2% of the global total, or equivalent to the energy consumed nationally by Switzerland.[69]

Some miners pool resources, sharing their processing power over a network to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block. A "share" is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof-of-work.

As of February 2018, the Chinese Government has halted trading of virtual currency, banned initial coin offerings and shut down mining. Many Chinese miners have since relocated to Canada[70] and Texas.[71] One company is operating data centers for mining operations at Canadian oil and gas field sites, due to low gas prices.[72] In June 2018, Hydro Quebec proposed to the provincial government to allocate 500 megawatts of power to crypto companies for mining.[73] According to a February 2018 report from Fortune, Iceland has become a haven for cryptocurrency miners in part because of its cheap electricity.[74]

In March 2018, the city of Plattsburgh, New York put an 18-month moratorium on all cryptocurrency mining in an effort to preserve natural resources and the "character and direction" of the city.[75] In 2021, Kazakhstan became the second-biggest crypto-currency mining country, producing 18.1% of the global exahash rate. The country built a compound containing 50,000 computers near Ekibastuz.[76]

GPU price rise

An increase in cryptocurrency mining increased the demand for graphics cards (GPU) in 2017.[77] The computing power of GPUs makes them well-suited to generating hashes. Popular favorites of cryptocurrency miners such as Nvidia's GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 graphics cards, as well as AMD's RX 570 and RX 580 GPUs, doubled or tripled in price – or were out of stock.[78] A GTX 1070 Ti which was released at a price of $450 sold for as much as $1,100. Another popular card, the GTX 1060 (6 GB model) was released at an MSRP of $250, and sold for almost $500. RX 570 and RX 580 cards from AMD were out of stock for almost a year. Miners regularly buy up the entire stock of new GPU's as soon as they are available.[79]

Nvidia has asked retailers to do what they can when it comes to selling GPUs to gamers instead of miners. Boris Böhles, PR manager for Nvidia in the German region, said: "Gamers come first for Nvidia."[80]

Mining accelerator chips

Numerous companies developed dedicated crypto-mining accelerator chips, capable of price-performance far higher than that of CPU or GPU mining. At one point Intel marketed its own brand of crypto accelerator chip, named Blockscale.[81]

Wallets

 
An example paper printable Bitcoin wallet consisting of one Bitcoin address for receiving and the corresponding private key for spending

A cryptocurrency wallet is a means of storing the public and private "keys" (address) or seed which can be used to receive or spend the cryptocurrency.[82] With the private key, it is possible to write in the public ledger, effectively spending the associated cryptocurrency. With the public key, it is possible for others to send currency to the wallet.

There exist multiple methods of storing keys or seed in a wallet. These methods range from using paper wallets (which are public, private or seed keys written on paper), to using hardware wallets (which are hardware to store your wallet information), to a digital wallet (which is a computer with a software hosting your wallet information), to hosting your wallet using an exchange where cryptocurrency is traded, or by storing your wallet information on a digital medium such as plaintext.[83]

Anonymity

Bitcoin is pseudonymous, rather than anonymous; the cryptocurrency in a wallet is not tied to a person, but rather to one or more specific keys (or "addresses").[84] Thereby, Bitcoin owners are not immediately identifiable, but all transactions are publicly available in the blockchain.[85] Still, cryptocurrency exchanges are often required by law to collect the personal information of their users.[86]

Some cryptocurrencies, such as Monero, Zerocoin, Zerocash, and CryptoNote, implement additional measures to increase privacy, such as by using zero-knowledge proofs.[87][88]

A recent 2020 study presented different attacks on privacy in cryptocurrencies. The attacks demonstrated how the anonymity techniques are not sufficient safeguards. In order to improve privacy, researchers suggested several different ideas including new cryptographic schemes and mechanisms for hiding the IP address of the source.[89]

Economics

Cryptocurrencies are used primarily outside banking and governmental institutions and are exchanged over the Internet.

Block rewards

Proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, offer block rewards incentives for miners. There has been an implicit belief that whether miners are paid by block rewards or transaction fees does not affect the security of the blockchain, but a study suggests that this may not be the case under certain circumstances.[90]

The rewards paid to miners increase the supply of the cryptocurrency. By making sure that verifying transactions is a costly business, the integrity of the network can be preserved as long as benevolent nodes control a majority of computing power. The verification algorithm requires a lot of processing power, and thus electricity in order to make verification costly enough to accurately validate public blockchain. Not only do miners have to factor in the costs associated with expensive equipment necessary to stand a chance of solving a hash problem, they must further consider the significant amount of electrical power in search of the solution. Generally, the block rewards outweigh electricity and equipment costs, but this may not always be the case.[91]

The current value, not the long-term value, of the cryptocurrency supports the reward scheme to incentivize miners to engage in costly mining activities.[92] In 2018, Bitcoin's design caused a 1.4% welfare loss compared to an efficient cash system, while a cash system with 2% money growth has a minor 0.003% welfare cost. The main source for this inefficiency is the large mining cost, which is estimated to be US$360 million per year. This translates into users being willing to accept a cash system with an inflation rate of 230% before being better off using Bitcoin as a means of payment. However, the efficiency of the Bitcoin system can be significantly improved by optimizing the rate of coin creation and minimizing transaction fees. Another potential improvement is to eliminate inefficient mining activities by changing the consensus protocol altogether.[93]

Transaction fees

Transaction fees for cryptocurrency depend mainly on the supply of network capacity at the time, versus the demand from the currency holder for a faster transaction.[citation needed] The currency holder can choose a specific transaction fee, while network entities process transactions in order of highest offered fee to lowest.[citation needed] Cryptocurrency exchanges can simplify the process for currency holders by offering priority alternatives and thereby determine which fee will likely cause the transaction to be processed in the requested time.[citation needed]

For Ethereum, transaction fees differ by computational complexity, bandwidth use, and storage needs, while Bitcoin transaction fees differ by transaction size and whether the transaction uses SegWit. In February 2023, the median transaction fee for Ether corresponded to $2.2845,[94] while for Bitcoin it corresponded to $0.659.[95]

Some cryptocurrencies have no transaction fees, and instead rely on client-side proof-of-work as the transaction prioritization and anti-spam mechanism.[96][97][98]

Exchanges

Cryptocurrency exchanges allow customers to trade cryptocurrencies[99] for other assets, such as conventional fiat money, or to trade between different digital currencies.

Crypto marketplaces do not guarantee that an investor is completing a purchase or trade at the optimal price. As a result, as of 2020 it was possible to arbitrage to find the difference in price across several markets.[100]

Atomic swaps

Atomic swaps are a mechanism where one cryptocurrency can be exchanged directly for another cryptocurrency, without the need for a trusted third party such as an exchange.[101]

ATMs

 
Bitcoin ATM

Jordan Kelley, founder of Robocoin, launched the first Bitcoin ATM in the United States on 20 February 2014. The kiosk installed in Austin, Texas, is similar to bank ATMs but has scanners to read government-issued identification such as a driver's license or a passport to confirm users' identities.[102]

Initial coin offerings

An initial coin offering (ICO) is a controversial means of raising funds for a new cryptocurrency venture. An ICO may be used by startups with the intention of avoiding regulation. However, securities regulators in many jurisdictions, including in the U.S., and Canada, have indicated that if a coin or token is an "investment contract" (e.g., under the Howey test, i.e., an investment of money with a reasonable expectation of profit based significantly on the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others), it is a security and is subject to securities regulation. In an ICO campaign, a percentage of the cryptocurrency (usually in the form of "tokens") is sold to early backers of the project in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies, often Bitcoin or Ether.[103][104][105]

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, four of the 10 biggest proposed initial coin offerings have used Switzerland as a base, where they are frequently registered as non-profit foundations. The Swiss regulatory agency FINMA stated that it would take a "balanced approach" to ICO projects and would allow "legitimate innovators to navigate the regulatory landscape and so launch their projects in a way consistent with national laws protecting investors and the integrity of the financial system." In response to numerous requests by industry representatives, a legislative ICO working group began to issue legal guidelines in 2018, which are intended to remove uncertainty from cryptocurrency offerings and to establish sustainable business practices.[106]

Price trends

The market capitalization of a cryptocurrency is calculated by multiplying the price by the number of coins in circulation. The total cryptocurrency market cap has historically been dominated by Bitcoin accounting for at least 50% of the market cap value where altcoins have increased and decreased in market cap value in relation to Bitcoin. Bitcoin's value is largely determined by speculation among other technological limiting factors known as blockchain rewards coded into the architecture technology of Bitcoin itself. The cryptocurrency market cap follows a trend known as the "halving", which is when the block rewards received from Bitcoin are halved due to technological mandated limited factors instilled into Bitcoin which in turn limits the supply of Bitcoin. As the date reaches near of a halving (twice thus far historically) the cryptocurrency market cap increases, followed by a downtrend.[107]

By June 2021, cryptocurrency had begun to be offered by some wealth managers in the US for 401(k)s.[108][109][110]

Volatility

Cryptocurrency prices are much more volatile than established financial assets such as stocks. For example, over one week in May 2022, Bitcoin lost 20% of its value and Ethereum lost 26%, while Solana and Cardano lost 41% and 35% respectively. The falls were attributed to warnings about inflation. By comparison, in the same week, the Nasdaq tech stock index fell 7.6 per cent and the FTSE 100 was 3.6 per cent down.[111]

In the longer term, of the 10 leading cryptocurrencies identified by the total value of coins in circulation in January 2018, only four (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano and Ripple (XRP)) were still in that position in early 2022.[112] The total value of all cryptocurrencies was $2 trillion at the end of 2021, but had halved nine months later.[113][114] The Wall Street Journal has commented that the crypto sector has become "intertwined" with the rest of the capital markets and "sensitive to the same forces that drive tech stocks and other risk assets", such as inflation forecasts.[115]

Databases

There are also centralized databases, outside of blockchains, that store crypto market data. Compared to the blockchain, databases perform fast as there is no verification process. Four of the most popular cryptocurrency market databases are CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, BraveNewCoin, and Cryptocompare.[116]

Social and political aspects

According to Alan Feuer of The New York Times, libertarians and anarcho-capitalists were attracted to the philosophical idea behind Bitcoin. Early Bitcoin supporter Roger Ver said: "At first, almost everyone who got involved did so for philosophical reasons. We saw Bitcoin as a great idea, as a way to separate money from the state."[117] Economist Paul Krugman argues that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are "something of a cult" based in "paranoid fantasies" of government power.[118]

David Golumbia says that the ideas influencing Bitcoin advocates emerge from right-wing extremist movements such as the Liberty Lobby and the John Birch Society and their anti-Central Bank rhetoric, or, more recently, Ron Paul and Tea Party-style libertarianism.[119] Steve Bannon, who owns a "good stake" in Bitcoin, sees cryptocurrency as a form of disruptive populism, taking control back from central authorities.[120]

Bitcoin's founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, has supported the idea that cryptocurrencies go well with libertarianism. "It's very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly," Nakamoto said in 2008.[121]

According to the European Central Bank, the decentralization of money offered by Bitcoin has its theoretical roots in the Austrian school of economics, especially with Friedrich von Hayek in his book Denationalisation of Money: The Argument Refined,[122] in which Hayek advocates a complete free market in the production, distribution and management of money to end the monopoly of central banks.[123]

Increasing regulation

The rise in the popularity of cryptocurrencies and their adoption by financial institutions has led some governments to assess whether regulation is needed to protect users. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has defined cryptocurrency-related services as "virtual asset service providers" (VASPs) and recommended that they be regulated with the same money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) requirements as financial institutions.[124]

In May 2020, the Joint Working Group on interVASP Messaging Standards published "IVMS 101", a universal common language for communication of required originator and beneficiary information between VASPs. The FATF and financial regulators were informed as the data model was developed.[125]

In June 2020, FATF updated its guidance to include the "Travel Rule" for cryptocurrencies, a measure which mandates that VASPs obtain, hold, and exchange information about the originators and beneficiaries of virtual asset transfers.[126] Subsequent standardized protocol specifications recommended using JSON for relaying data between VASPs and identity services. As of December 2020, the IVMS 101 data model has yet to be finalized and ratified by the three global standard setting bodies that created it.[127]

The European Commission published a digital finance strategy in September 2020. This included a draft regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), which aimed to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the EU.[128][129]

On 10 June 2021, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision proposed that banks that held cryptocurrency assets must set aside capital to cover all potential losses. For instance, if a bank were to hold Bitcoin worth $2 billion, it would be required to set aside enough capital to cover the entire $2 billion. This is a more extreme standard than banks are usually held to when it comes to other assets. However, this is a proposal and not a regulation.

The IMF is seeking a coordinated, consistent and comprehensive approach to supervising cryptocurrencies. Tobias Adrian, the IMF's financial counsellor and head of its monetary and capital markets department said in a January 2022 interview that "Agreeing global regulations is never quick. But if we start now, we can achieve the goal of maintaining financial stability while also enjoying the benefits which the underlying technological innovations bring,"[130]

China

In September 2017, China banned ICOs to cause abnormal return from cryptocurrency decreasing during announcement window. The liquidity changes by banning ICOs in China was temporarily negative while the liquidity effect became positive after news.[131]

On 18 May 2021, China banned financial institutions and payment companies from being able to provide cryptocurrency transaction related services.[132] This led to a sharp fall in the price of the biggest proof of work cryptocurrencies. For instance, Bitcoin fell 31%, Ethereum fell 44%, Binance Coin fell 32% and Dogecoin fell 30%.[133] Proof of work mining was the next focus, with regulators in popular mining regions citing the use of electricity generated from highly polluting sources such as coal to create Bitcoin and Ethereum.[134]

In September 2021, the Chinese government declared all cryptocurrency transactions of any kind illegal, completing its crackdown on cryptocurrency.[30]

El Salvador

On 9 June 2021, El Salvador announced that it will adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, becoming the first country to do so.[135]

India

At present, India neither prohibits nor allows investment in the cryptocurrency market. In 2020, the Supreme Court of India had lifted the ban on cryptocurrency, which was imposed by the Reserve Bank of India.[136][137][138][139] Since then, an investment in cryptocurrency is considered legitimate, though there is still ambiguity about the issues regarding the extent and payment of tax on the income accrued thereupon and also its regulatory regime. But it is being contemplated that the Indian Parliament will soon pass a specific law to either ban or regulate the cryptocurrency market in India.[140] Expressing his public policy opinion on the Indian cryptocurrency market to a well-known online publication, a leading public policy lawyer and Vice President of SAARCLAW (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation in Law) Hemant Batra has said that the "cryptocurrency market has now become very big with involvement of billions of dollars in the market hence, it is now unattainable and irreconcilable for the government to completely ban all sorts of cryptocurrency and its trading and investment".[141] He mooted regulating the cryptocurrency market rather than completely banning it. He favoured following IMF and FATF guidelines in this regard.

South Africa

South Africa, which has seen a large number of scams related to cryptocurrency, is said to be putting a regulatory timeline in place that will produce a regulatory framework.[142] The largest scam occurred in April 2021, where the two founders of an African-based cryptocurrency exchange called Africrypt, Raees Cajee and Ameer Cajee, disappeared with $3.8 billion worth of Bitcoin.[143] Additionally, Mirror Trading International disappeared with $170 million worth of cryptocurrency in January 2021.[143]

South Korea

In March 2021, South Korea implemented new legislation to strengthen their oversight of digital assets. This legislation requires all digital asset managers, providers and exchanges to be registered with the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit in order to operate in South Korea.[144] Registering with this unit requires that all exchanges are certified by the Information Security Management System and that they ensure all customers have real name bank accounts. It also requires that the CEO and board members of the exchanges have not been convicted of any crimes and that the exchange holds sufficient levels of deposit insurance to cover losses arising from hacks.[144]

Switzerland

Switzerland was one of the first countries to implement the FATF's Travel Rule. FINMA, the Swiss regulator, issued its own guidance to VASPs in 2019. The guidance followed the FATF's Recommendation 16, however with stricter requirements. According to FINMA's[145] requirements, VASPs need to verify the identity of the beneficiary of the transfer.

Turkey

On 30 April 2021, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey banned the use of cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets for making purchases on the grounds that the use of cryptocurrencies for such payments poses significant transaction risks.[146]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, as of 10 January 2021, all cryptocurrency firms, such as exchanges, advisors and professionals that have either a presence, market product or provide services within the UK market must register with the Financial Conduct Authority. Additionally, on 27 June 2021, the financial watchdog demanded that Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange,[147] cease all regulated activities in the UK.[148]

United States

In 2021, 17 states passed laws and resolutions concerning cryptocurrency regulation.[149] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering what steps to take. On 8 July 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren, part of the Senate Banking Committee, wrote to the chairman of the SEC and demanded answers on cryptocurrency regulation due to the increase in cryptocurrency exchange use and the danger this posed to consumers. On 5 August 2021, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler responded to Senator Elizabeth Warren's letter regarding cryptocurrency regulation and called for legislation focused on "crypto trading, lending and DeFi platforms," because of how vulnerable the investors could be when they traded on crypto trading platforms without a broker. He also argued that many tokens in the crypto market may be unregistered securities without required disclosures or market oversight. Additionally, Gensler did not hold back in his criticism of stablecoins. These tokens, which are pegged to the value of fiat currencies, may allow individuals to bypass important public policy goals related to traditional banking and financial systems, such as anti-money laundering, tax compliance, and sanctions.[150]

On 19 October 2021, the first bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund (ETF) from ProShares started trading on the NYSE under the ticker "BITO." ProShares CEO Michael L. Sapir said the ETF would expose Bitcoin to a wider range of investors without the hassle of setting up accounts with cryptocurrency providers. Ian Balina, the CEO of Token Metrics, stated that the approval of the "BITO" ETF by the SEC was a significant endorsement for the crypto industry because many regulators globally were not in favor of crypto as well as the hesitance to accept crypto from retail investors. This event would eventually open more opportunities for new capital and new people in this space.[151]

The United States Department of the Treasury, on 20 May 2021, announced that it would require any transfer worth $10,000 or more to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service since cryptocurrency already posed a problem where illegal activity like tax evasion was facilitated broadly. This release from the IRS was a part of efforts to promote better compliance and consider more severe penalties for tax evaders.[152]

On 17 February 2022, the Justice department named Eun Young Choi as the first director of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to aid in identification of and dealing with misuse of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.[153]

The Biden administration faced a dilemma as it tried to develop regulations for the cryptocurrency industry. On one hand, officials were hesitant to restrict the growing and profitable industry. On the other hand, they were committed to preventing illegal cryptocurrency transactions. To reconcile these conflicting goals, on 9 March 2022, President Biden issued an executive order.[154] Followed by the executive order, on 16 September 2022, the Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets document was released [155] to support development of cryptocurrencies and restrict their illegal use. The executive order included all digital assets, but cryptocurrencies posed both the greatest security risks and potential economic benefits. Though this might not address all of the challenges in crypto industry, it was a significant milestone in the U.S. cryptocurrency regulation history.[156]

In February 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled that cryptocurrency exchange Kraken's estimated $42 billion in staked assets globally operated as an illegal securities seller. The company agreed to a $30 million settlement with the SEC and to cease selling its staking service in the U.S. The case would impact other major crypto exchanges operating staking programs.[157]

On 23 March 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an alert to investors stating that firms offering crypto asset securities may not be complying with U.S. laws. The SEC stated that unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities may not include important information.[158]

Legality

The legal status of cryptocurrencies varies substantially from country to country and is still undefined or changing in many of them. At least one study has shown that broad generalizations about the use of Bitcoin in illicit finance are significantly overstated and that blockchain analysis is an effective crime fighting and intelligence gathering tool.[159] While some countries have explicitly allowed their use and trade,[160] others have banned or restricted it. According to the Library of Congress in 2021, an "absolute ban" on trading or using cryptocurrencies applies in 9 countries: Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, and the United Arab Emirates. An "implicit ban" applies in another 39 countries or regions, which include: Bahrain, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Macau, Maldives, Mali, Moldova, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Republic of Congo, Saudi Arabia, Sengeal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Qatar and Vietnam.[161] In the United States and Canada, state and provincial securities regulators, coordinated through the North American Securities Administrators Association, are investigating "Bitcoin scams" and ICOs in 40 jurisdictions.[162]

Various government agencies, departments, and courts have classified Bitcoin differently. China Central Bank banned the handling of Bitcoins by financial institutions in China in early 2014.

In Russia, though owning cryptocurrency is legal, its residents are only allowed to purchase goods from other residents using the Russian ruble while nonresidents are allowed to use foreign currency.[163] Regulations and bans that apply to Bitcoin probably extend to similar cryptocurrency systems.[164]

In August 2018, the Bank of Thailand announced its plans to create its own cryptocurrency, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).[165]

Advertising bans

Cryptocurrency advertisements have been banned on the following platforms:

U.S. tax status

On 25 March 2014, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled that Bitcoin will be treated as property for tax purposes. Therefore, virtual currencies are considered commodities subject to capital gains tax.[173]

Legal concerns relating to an unregulated global economy

As the popularity and demand for online currencies has increased since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009,[174] so have concerns that such an unregulated person to person global economy that cryptocurrencies offer may become a threat to society. Concerns abound that altcoins may become tools for anonymous web criminals.[175]

Cryptocurrency networks display a lack of regulation that has been criticized as enabling criminals who seek to evade taxes and launder money. Money laundering issues are also present in regular bank transfers, however with bank-to-bank wire transfers for instance, the account holder must at least provide a proven identity.

Transactions that occur through the use and exchange of these altcoins are independent from formal banking systems, and therefore can make tax evasion simpler for individuals. Since charting taxable income is based upon what a recipient reports to the revenue service, it becomes extremely difficult to account for transactions made using existing cryptocurrencies, a mode of exchange that is complex and difficult to track.[175]

Systems of anonymity that most cryptocurrencies offer can also serve as a simpler means to launder money. Rather than laundering money through an intricate net of financial actors and offshore bank accounts, laundering money through altcoins can be achieved through anonymous transactions.[175]

Cryptocurrency makes legal enforcement against extremist groups more complicated, which consequently strengthens them.[176] White supremacist Richard Spencer went as far as to declare Bitcoin the "currency of the alt-right".[177]

Loss, theft, and fraud

In February 2014, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, declared bankruptcy. Likely due to theft, the company claimed that it had lost nearly 750,000 Bitcoins belonging to their clients. This added up to approximately 7% of all Bitcoins in existence, worth a total of $473 million. Mt. Gox blamed hackers, who had exploited the transaction malleability problems in the network. The price of a Bitcoin fell from a high of about $1,160 in December to under $400 in February.[178]

On 21 November 2017, Tether announced that it had been hacked, losing $31 million in USDT from its core treasury wallet.[179]

On 7 December 2017, Slovenian cryptocurrency exchange Nicehash reported that hackers had stolen over $70M using a hijacked company computer.[180]

On 19 December 2017, Yapian, the owner of South Korean exchange Youbit, filed for bankruptcy after suffering two hacks that year.[181][182] Customers were still granted access to 75% of their assets.

In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold had its transactions hijacked and abused by unknown hackers.[183] Exchanges lost an estimated $18m and Bitcoin Gold was delisted from Bittrex after it refused to pay its share of the damages.

On 13 September 2018, Homero Josh Garza was sentenced to 21 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.[184] Garza had founded the cryptocurrency startups GAW Miners and ZenMiner in 2014, acknowledged in a plea agreement that the companies were part of a pyramid scheme, and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2015. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission separately brought a civil enforcement action against Garza, who was eventually ordered to pay a judgment of $9.1 million plus $700,000 in interest. The SEC's complaint stated that Garza, through his companies, had fraudulently sold "investment contracts representing shares in the profits they claimed would be generated" from mining.[185]

In January 2018, Japanese exchange Coincheck reported that hackers had stolen $530M worth of cryptocurrencies.[186]

In June 2018, South Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked, losing over $37M worth of cryptos.[187] The hack worsened an already ongoing cryptocurrency selloff by an additional $42 billion.[188]

On 9 July 2018, the exchange Bancor, whose code and fundraising had been subjects of controversy, had $23.5 million in cryptocurrency stolen.[189]

A 2020 EU report found that users had lost crypto-assets worth hundreds of millions of US dollars in security breaches at exchanges and storage providers. Between 2011 and 2019, reported breaches ranged from four to twelve a year. In 2019, more than a billion dollars worth of cryptoassets was reported stolen. Stolen assets "typically find their way to illegal markets and are used to fund further criminal activity".[190]

According to a 2020 report produced by the United States Attorney General's Cyber-Digital Task Force, the following three categories make up the majority of illicit cryptocurrency uses: "(1) financial transactions associated with the commission of crimes; (2) money laundering and the shielding of legitimate activity from tax, reporting, or other legal requirements; or (3) crimes, such as theft, directly implicating the cryptocurrency marketplace itself." The report concludes that "for cryptocurrency to realize its truly transformative potential, it is imperative that these risks be addressed" and that "the government has legal and regulatory tools available at its disposal to confront the threats posed by cryptocurrency's illicit uses".[191][192]

According to the UK 2020 national risk assessment—a comprehensive assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risk in the UK—the risk of using cryptoassets such as Bitcoin for money laundering and terrorism financing is assessed as "medium" (from "low" in the previous 2017 report).[193] Legal scholars suggested that the money laundering opportunities may be more perceived than real.[194] Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis concluded that illicit activities like cybercrime, money laundering and terrorism financing made up only 0.15% of all crypto transactions conducted in 2021, representing a total of $14 billion.[195][196][197]

In December 2021, Monkey Kingdom, a NFT project based in Hong Kong, lost US$1.3 million worth of cryptocurrencies via a phishing link used by the hacker.[198]

Money laundering

According to blockchain data company Chainalysis, criminals laundered US$8,600,000,000 worth of cryptocurrency in 2021, up by 30% from the previous year.[199] The data suggests that rather than managing numerous illicit havens, cybercriminals make use of a small group of purpose built centralized exchanges for sending and receiving illicit cryptocurrency. In 2021, those exchanges received 47% of funds sent by crime linked addresses.[200] Almost $2.2bn worth of cryptocurrencies was embezzled from DeFi protocols in 2021, which represents 72% of all cryptocurrency theft in 2021.

According to Bloomberg and the New York Times, Federation Tower, a two skyscraper complex in the heart of Moscow City, is home to many cryptocurrency businesses under suspicion of facilitating extensive money laundering, including accepting illicit cryptocurrency funds obtained through scams, darknet markets, and ransomware.[201] Notable businesses include Garantex,[202] Eggchange, Cashbank, Buy-Bitcoin, Tetchange, Bitzlato, and Suex, which was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2021. Bitzlato founder and owner Anatoly Legkodymov was arrested following money-laundering charges by the United States Department of Justice.[203]

Dark money has also been flowing into Russia through a dark web marketplace called Hydra, which is powered by cryptocurrency, and enjoyed more than $1 billion in sales in 2020, according to Chainalysis.[204] The platform demands that sellers liquidate cryptocurrency only through certain regional exchanges, which has made it difficult for investigators to trace the money.

Almost 74% of ransomware revenue in 2021 — over $400 million worth of cryptocurrency — went to software strains likely affiliated with Russia, where oversight is notoriously limited.[201] However, Russians are also leaders in the benign adoption of cryptocurrencies, as the ruble is unreliable, and President Putin favours the idea of "overcoming the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies."[205]

In 2022, RenBridge - an unregulated alternative to exchanges for transferring value between blockchains - was found to be responsible for the laundering of at least $540 million since 2020. It is especially popular with people attempting to launder money from theft. This includes a cyberattack on Japanese crypto exchange Liquid that has been linked to North Korea.[206]

Darknet markets

Properties of cryptocurrencies gave them popularity in applications such as a safe haven in banking crises and means of payment, which also led to the cryptocurrency use in controversial settings in the form of online black markets, such as Silk Road.[175] The original Silk Road was shut down in October 2013 and there have been two more versions in use since then. In the year following the initial shutdown of Silk Road, the number of prominent dark markets increased from four to twelve, while the amount of drug listings increased from 18,000 to 32,000.[175]

Darknet markets present challenges in regard to legality. Cryptocurrency used in dark markets are not clearly or legally classified in almost all parts of the world. In the U.S., Bitcoins are labelled as "virtual assets".[citation needed] This type of ambiguous classification puts pressure on law enforcement agencies around the world to adapt to the shifting drug trade of dark markets.[207][unreliable source?]

Wash trades

Various studies have found that crypto-trading is rife with wash trading. Wash trading is a process, illegal in some jurisdictions, involving buyers and sellers being the same person or group, and may be used to manipulate the price of a cryptocurrency or inflate volume artificially. Exchanges with higher volumes can demand higher premiums from token issuers.[208] A study from 2019 concluded that up to 80% of trades on unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges could be wash trades.[208] A 2019 report by Bitwise Asset Management claimed that 95% of all Bitcoin trading volume reported on major website CoinMarketCap had been artificially generated, and of 81 exchanges studied, only 10 provided legitimate volume figures.[209]

As a tool to evade sanctions

In 2022, cryptocurrencies attracted attention when Western nations imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine in February. However, American sources warned in March that some crypto-transactions could potentially be used to evade economic sanctions against Russia and Belarus.[210]

In April 2022, the computer programmer Virgil Griffith received a five-year prison sentence in the US for attending a Pyongyang cryptocurrency conference, where he gave a presentation on blockchains which might be used for sanctions evasion.[211]

Impacts and analysis

External videos
  Cryptocurrencies: looking beyond the hype, Hyun Song Shin, Bank for International Settlements, 2:48[212]

The Bank for International Settlements summarized several criticisms of cryptocurrencies in Chapter V of their 2018 annual report. The criticisms include the lack of stability in their price, the high energy consumption, high and variable transactions costs, the poor security and fraud at cryptocurrency exchanges, vulnerability to debasement (from forking), and the influence of miners.[212][213][214]

Speculation, fraud, and adoption

Cryptocurrencies have been compared to Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes[215] and economic bubbles,[216] such as housing market bubbles.[217] Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management stated in 2017 that digital currencies were "nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it", and compared them to the tulip mania (1637), South Sea Bubble (1720), and dot-com bubble (1999), which all experienced profound price booms and busts.[218]

Regulators in several countries have warned against cryptocurrency and some have taken measures to dissuade users.[219] However, research in 2021 by the UK's financial regulator suggests such warnings either went unheard, or were ignored. Fewer than one in 10 potential cryptocurrency buyers were aware of consumer warnings on the FCA website, and 12% of crypto users were not aware that their holdings were not protected by statutory compensation.[220][221] Of 1,000 respondents between the ages of eighteen and forty, almost 70% wrongly assumed cryptocurrencies were regulated, 75% of younger crypto investors claimed to be driven by competition with friends and family, 58% said that social media enticed them to make high risk investments.[222] The FCA recommends making use of its warning list, which flags unauthorized financial firms.[223]

Many banks do not offer virtual currency services themselves and can refuse to do business with virtual currency companies.[224] In 2014, Gareth Murphy, a senior banking officer, suggested that the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies may lead to too much money being obfuscated, blinding economists who would use such information to better steer the economy.[225] While traditional financial products have strong consumer protections in place, there is no intermediary with the power to limit consumer losses if Bitcoins are lost or stolen. One of the features cryptocurrency lacks in comparison to credit cards, for example, is consumer protection against fraud, such as chargebacks.

The French regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) lists 16 websites of companies that solicit investment in cryptocurrency without being authorized to do so in France.[226]

An October 2021 paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Bitcoin suffers from systemic risk as the top 10,000 addresses control about one-third of all Bitcoin in circulation.[227] It is even worse for Bitcoin miners, with 0.01% controlling 50% of the capacity. According to researcher Flipside Crypto, less than 2% of anonymous accounts control 95% of all available Bitcoin supply.[228] This is considered risky as a great deal of the market is in the hands of a few entities.

A paper by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student found that in 2017 the price of Bitcoin had been substantially inflated using another cryptocurrency, Tether.[229]

Roger Lowenstein, author of "Bank of America: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve," says in a New York Times story that FTX will face over $8 billion in claims.[230]

Non-fungible tokens

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that represent art, collectibles, gaming, etc. Like crypto, their data is stored on the blockchain. NFTs are bought and traded using cryptocurrency. The Ethereum blockchain was the first place where NFTs were implemented, but now many other blockchains have created their own versions of NFTs.

Banks

As the first big Wall Street bank to embrace cryptocurrencies, Morgan Stanley announced on 17 March 2021 that they will be offering access to Bitcoin funds for their wealthy clients through three funds which enable Bitcoin ownership for investors with an aggressive risk tolerance.[231] BNY Mellon on 11 February 2021 announced that it would begin offering cryptocurrency services to its clients.[232]

On 20 April 2021,[233] Venmo added support to its platform to enable customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.[234]

In October 2021, financial services company Mastercard announced it is working with digital asset manager Bakkt on a platform that would allow any bank or merchant on the Mastercard network to offer cryptocurrency services.[235]

Environmental effects

Mining for proof-of-work cryptocurrencies requires enormous amounts of electricity and consequently comes with a large carbon footprint due to causing greenhouse gas emissions.[236] Proof-of-work blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero were estimated to have added between 3 million and 15 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere in the period from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2017.[237] By November 2018, Bitcoin was estimated to have an annual energy consumption of 45.8TWh, generating 22.0 to 22.9 million tons of CO2, rivalling nations like Jordan and Sri Lanka.[238] By the end of 2021, Bitcoin was estimated to produce 65.4 million tons of CO2, as much as Greece,[239] and consume between 91 and 177 terawatt-hours annually.[240][241]

Critics have also identified a large electronic waste problem in disposing of mining rigs.[242] Mining hardware is improving at a fast rate, quickly resulting in older generations of hardware.[243]

Bitcoin is the least energy-efficient cryptocurrency, using 707.6 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction.[244]

Before June 2021, China was the primary location for Bitcoin mining. However, due to concerns over power usage and other factors, China forced out Bitcoin operations, at least temporarily. As a result, the United States promptly emerged as the top global leader in the industry. An example of a gross amount of electronic waste associated with Bitcoin mining operations in the US is a facility that located in Dalton, Georgia which is consuming nearly the same amount of electricity as the combined power usage of 97,000 households in its vicinity. Another example is that Riot Platforms operates a Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, which consumes approximately as much electricity as the nearby 300,000 households. This makes it the most energy-intensive Bitcoin mining operation in the United States.[245]

The world's second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, uses 62.56 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction.[246] XRP is the world's most energy efficient cryptocurrency, using 0.0079 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction.[247]

Although the biggest PoW blockchains consume energy on the scale of medium-sized countries, the annual power demand from proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains is on a scale equivalent to a housing estate. The Times identified six "environmentally friendly" cryptocurrencies: Chia, IOTA, Cardano, Nano, Solarcoin and Bitgreen.[248] Academics and researchers have used various methods for estimating the energy use and energy efficiency of blockchains. A study of the six largest proof-of-stake networks in May 2021 concluded:

  • Cardano has the lowest electricity use per node;
  • Polkadot has the lowest electricity use overall; and
  • Solana has the lowest electricity use per transaction.

In terms of annual consumption (kWh/yr), the figures were: Polkadot (70,237), Tezos (113,249), Avalanche (489,311), Algorand (512,671), Cardano (598,755) and Solana (1,967,930). This equates to Polkadot consuming 7 times the electricity of an average U.S. home, Cardano 57 homes and Solana 200 times as much. The research concluded that PoS networks consumed 0.001% the electricity of the Bitcoin network.[249] University College London researchers reached a similar conclusion.[250]

Variable renewable energy power stations could invest in Bitcoin mining to reduce curtailment, hedge electricity price risk, stabilize the grid, increase the profitability of renewable energy power stations and therefore accelerate transition to sustainable energy.[251][252][253][254][255]

Technological limitations

There are also purely technical elements to consider. For example, technological advancement in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin result in high up-front costs to miners in the form of specialized hardware and software.[256] Cryptocurrency transactions are normally irreversible after a number of blocks confirm the transaction. Additionally, cryptocurrency private keys can be permanently lost from local storage due to malware, data loss or the destruction of the physical media. This precludes the cryptocurrency from being spent, resulting in its effective removal from the markets.[257]

Academic studies

In September 2015, the establishment of the peer-reviewed academic journal Ledger (ISSN 2379-5980) was announced. It covers studies of cryptocurrencies and related technologies, and is published by the University of Pittsburgh.[258]

The journal encourages authors to digitally sign a file hash of submitted papers, which will then be timestamped into the Bitcoin blockchain. Authors are also asked to include a personal Bitcoin address in the first page of their papers.[259][260]

Aid agencies

A number of aid agencies have started accepting donations in cryptocurrencies, including UNICEF.[261] Christopher Fabian, principal adviser at UNICEF Innovation, said the children's fund would uphold donor protocols, meaning that people making donations online would have to pass checks before they were allowed to deposit funds.[262][263]

However, in 2021, there was a backlash against donations in Bitcoin because of the environmental emissions it caused. Some agencies stopped accepting Bitcoin and others turned to "greener" cryptocurrencies.[264] The U.S. arm of Greenpeace stopped accepting bitcoin donations after seven years. It said: "As the amount of energy needed to run Bitcoin became clearer, this policy became no longer tenable."[265]

In 2022, the Ukrainian government raised over US$10,000,000 worth of aid through cryptocurrency following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[266]

Criticism

Bitcoin has been characterized as a speculative bubble by eight winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: Paul Krugman,[267] Robert J. Shiller,[268] Joseph Stiglitz,[269] Richard Thaler,[270] James Heckman,[271] Thomas Sargent,[271] Angus Deaton,[271] and Oliver Hart;[271] and by central bank officials including Alan Greenspan,[272] Agustín Carstens,[273] Vítor Constâncio,[274] and Nout Wellink.[275]

Investors Warren Buffett and George Soros have respectively characterized it as a "mirage"[276] and a "bubble";[277] while business executives Jack Ma and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have called it a "bubble"[278] and a "fraud",[279] respectively, although Jamie Dimon later said he regretted dubbing Bitcoin a fraud.[280] BlackRock CEO Laurence D. Fink called Bitcoin an "index of money laundering".[281]

In June 2022, business magnate Bill Gates said that cryptocurrencies are "100% based on greater fool theory".[282]

Legal scholars criticize the lack of regulation, which hinders conflict resolution when crypto assets are at the center of a legal dispute, for example a divorce or an inheritance. In Switzerland, jurists generally deny that cryptocurrencies are objects that fall under property law, as cryptocurrencies do not belong to any class of legally defined objects (Typenzwang, the legal numerus clausus). Therefore, it is debated whether anybody could even be sued for embezzlement of cryptocurrency if he/she had access to someone's wallet. However, in the law of obligations and contract law, any kind of object would be legally valid, but the object would have to be tied to an identified counterparty. However, as the more popular cryptocurrencies can be freely and quickly exchanged into legal tender, they are financial assets and have to be taxed and accounted for as such.[283][284]

In 2018, an increase in crypto-related suicides was noticed after the cryptocurrency market crashed in August. The situation was particularly critical in Korea as crypto traders were on "suicide watch". A cryptocurrency forum on Reddit even started providing suicide prevention support to affected investors.[285][286] The May 2022 collapse of the Luna currency operated by Terra also led to reports of suicidal investors in crypto-related subreddits.[287]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Whether the word 'crypto' refers to 'cryptocurrency' is controversial, see crypto naming controversy.

References

  1. ^ Pagliery, Jose (2014). Bitcoin: And the Future of Money. Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1629370361. from the original on 21 January 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  2. ^ Milutinović, Monia (2018). "Cryptocurrency". Ekonomika. 64 (1): 105–122. doi:10.5937/ekonomika1801105M. ISSN 0350-137X. from the original on 16 April 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b Andy Greenberg (20 April 2011). "Crypto Currency". Forbes. from the original on 31 August 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  4. ^ Polansek, Tom (2 May 2016). "CME, ICE prepare pricing data that could boost bitcoin". Reuters. from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  5. ^ Pernice, Ingolf G. A.; Scott, Brett (20 May 2021). "Cryptocurrency". Internet Policy Review. 10 (2). doi:10.14763/2021.2.1561. ISSN 2197-6775. from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  6. ^ "Bitcoin not a currency says Japan government". BBC News. 7 March 2014. from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  7. ^ "Is it a currency? A commodity? Bitcoin has an identity crisis". Reuters. 3 March 2020. from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  8. ^ Brown, Aaron (7 November 2017). "Are Cryptocurrencies an Asset Class? Yes and No". www.bloomberg.com. from the original on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  9. ^ Bezek, Ian (14 July 2021). "What Is Proof-of-Stake, and Why Is Ethereum Adopting It?". from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  10. ^ Allison, Ian (8 September 2015). "If Banks Want Benefits of Blockchains, They Must Go Permissionless". International Business Times. from the original on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  11. ^ Matteo D'Agnolo. "All you need to know about Bitcoin". timesofindia-economictimes. from the original on 26 October 2015.
  12. ^ "Cryptocurrencies: What Are They?". Schwab Brokerage. from the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023. However, as of June 2023, there were more than 25,000 digital currencies in the marketplace, of which more than 40 had a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion
  13. ^ Chaum, David. (PDF). www.hit.bme.hu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  14. ^ Chaum, David. "Untraceable Electronic Cash" (PDF). blog.koehntopp.de. (PDF) from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  15. ^ Pitta, Julie. "Requiem for a Bright Idea". Forbes. from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  16. ^ "How To Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash". groups.csail.mit.edu. from the original on 26 October 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  17. ^ Law, Laurie; Sabett, Susan; Solinas, Jerry (11 January 1997). "How to Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash". The American University Law Review. 46 (4). from the original on 12 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  18. ^ Wei Dai (1998). "B-Money". www.weidai.com. from the original on 5 November 2011.
  19. ^ Peck, Morgen E. (30 May 2012). "Bitcoin: The Cryptoanarchists' Answer to Cash". IEEE Spectrum. Around the same time, Nick Szabo, a computer scientist who now blogs about law and the history of money, was one of the first to imagine a new digital currency from the ground up. Although many consider his scheme, which he calls 'bit gold', to be a precursor to Bitcoin...
  20. ^ a b Jerry Brito and Andrea Castillo (2013). "Bitcoin: A Primer for Policymakers" (PDF). Mercatus Center. George Mason University. (PDF) from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  21. ^ Niccolai, James (19 May 2013). "Bitcoin developer chats about regulation, open source, and the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto". PCWorld. from the original on 3 October 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  22. ^ a b c Steadman, Ian (11 May 2013). "Wary of Bitcoin? A guide to some other cryptocurrencies". Ars Technica. from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  23. ^ "'Crypto winter' has come. And it's looking more like an ice age". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. from the original on 29 December 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  24. ^ "What Is Crypto Winter?". Forbes Advisor. Forbes. from the original on 13 April 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  25. ^ "UK launches initiative to explore potential of virtual currencies". The UK News. 7 August 2014. from the original on 10 November 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  26. ^ "Cryptoassets Taskforce: final report" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. HM Treasury. October 2018. (PDF) from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  27. ^ "UK regulatory approach to cryptoassets and stablecoins: Consultation and call for evidence" (PDF). HM Treasury. (PDF) from the original on 25 November 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  28. ^ "Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, first country ever". Mercopress. 10 June 2021. from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  29. ^ Sigalos, MacKenzie (27 August 2021). "Cuba's central bank now recognizes cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin". CNBC. from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  30. ^ a b "China declares all crypto-currency transactions illegal". BBC News. 24 September 2021. from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  31. ^ "Ethereum Finishes Long-Awaited Energy-Saving 'Merge' Upgrade". Bloomberg News. 15 September 2022.
  32. ^ Osipovich, Alexander (20 July 2017). "Crypto Exchange FTX Valued at $18 Billion in Funding Round". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. from the original on 18 November 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  33. ^ Hill, Jeremy (11 November 2022). "FTX Goes Bankrupt in Stunning Reversal for Crypto Exchange". Bloomberg News. from the original on 11 November 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  34. ^ Khalili, Joel (11 November 2022). "The Fallout of the FTX Collapse". Wired. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  35. ^ Chatterjee, Sumeet; Davies, Megan; Aftab, Ahmed; McCrank, John; Nguyen, Lananh; Howcroft, Elizabeth; Azhar, Saeed; Sinclair Foley, John (2 December 2022). "After FTX collapse, pressure builds for tougher crypto rules". Reuters. from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  36. ^ Wile, Rob (28 December 2022). "After FTX's spectacular collapse, where does crypto go from here?". NBC News. from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  37. ^ Lansky, Jan (January 2018). "Possible State Approaches to Cryptocurrencies". Journal of Systems Integration. 9/1: 19–31. doi:10.20470/jsi.v9i1.335. from the original on 12 February 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  38. ^ "The Dictionary Just Got a Whole Lot Bigger". Merriam-Webster. March 2018. from the original on 5 March 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  39. ^ Yang, Stephanie (31 January 2018). "Want to Keep Up With Bitcoin Enthusiasts? Learn the Lingo". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  40. ^ Katz, Lily (24 May 2017). "Cryptocurrency Mania Goes Beyond Bitcoin". Bloomberg. from the original on 16 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  41. ^ Browne, Ryan (5 December 2017). "Bitcoin is not a bubble but other cryptocurrencies are 'cannibalizing themselves,' fintech exec says". CNBC. from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  42. ^ a b Coll Aumatell, Roger (7 July 2021). Analysis and Development of Blockchain Rollups (Master's Thesis). Barcelona, Spain: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  43. ^ Kharif, Olga (15 January 2018). "These Digital Coins Soar (or Fall) With Bitcoin". Bloomberg. from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  44. ^ Hajric, Vildana (21 October 2020). "Bitcoin Surges to Highest Since July 2019 After PayPal Embrace". Bloomberg Law. from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  45. ^ "Forget Bitcoin: Inside the insane world of altcoin cryptocurrency trading". CNET. from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  46. ^ Vigna, Paul (19 December 2017). "Which Digital Currency Will Be the Next Bitcoin?". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  47. ^ Steadman, Ian (11 May 2013). "Wary of Bitcoin? A guide to some other cryptocurrencies". Ars Technica. from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  48. ^ Popper, Nathaniel (1 October 2017). "Understanding Ethereum, Bitcoin's Virtual Cousin (Published 2017)". The New York Times. from the original on 10 February 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  49. ^ "Ethereum Upgrade Adds to Crypto Mania Sparked by Bitcoin's Surge". Bloomberg.com. 25 November 2020. from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  50. ^ Popper, Nathaniel (27 March 2016). "Ethereum, a Virtual Currency, Enables Transactions That Rival Bitcoin's". The New York Times. from the original on 24 July 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  51. ^ Hajric, Vildana (28 August 2019). "Bitcoin's Surge Means Smaller Rivals May Be Due for Rallies". Bloomberg. from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  52. ^ Saad, Amena (8 July 2020). "TikTok Takes on Crypto With Dogecoin Soaring 40% in 24 Hours". Bloomberg. from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  53. ^ "Stablecoin". Investopedia. from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  54. ^ Denton, Jack. "How a Digital Token Designed to be Stable Fueled a Crypto Crash". www.barrons.com. from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  55. ^ "Turmoil and panic in crypto market as 'stablecoin' slump prompts wider collapse". the Guardian. 12 May 2022. from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  56. ^ "South Korean founder of failed cryptocurrency Terra denies he is 'on the run'". the Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 18 September 2022. from the original on 19 September 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  57. ^ "South Korean prosecutors ask Interpol to issue red notice for Do Kwon". Financial Times. 19 September 2022. from the original on 19 September 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  58. ^ "HKMA to Roll Out New Licensing Requirements and Regulations on Stablecoins in 2023/2024 | Perspectives & Events | Mayer Brown". www.mayerbrown.com. from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  59. ^ a b "Blockchains: The great chain of being sure about things". The Economist. 31 October 2015. from the original on 3 July 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  60. ^ "How Cryptocurrencies Could Upend Banks' Monetary Role". 27 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine, American Banker. 26 May 2013
  61. ^ a b Narayanan, Arvind; Bonneau, Joseph; Felten, Edward; Miller, Andrew; Goldfeder, Steven (2016). Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies: a comprehensive introduction. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17169-2.
  62. ^ "Blockchain". Investopedia. from the original on 23 March 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2016. Based on the Bitcoin protocol, the blockchain database is shared by all nodes participating in a system.
  63. ^ Iansiti, Marco; Lakhani, Karim R. (January 2017). "The Truth About Blockchain". Harvard Business Review. Harvard University. from the original on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017. The technology at the heart of bitcoin and other virtual currencies, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way.
  64. ^ Raval, Siraj (2016). Decentralized Applications: Harnessing Bitcoin's Blockchain Technology. O'Reilly Media, Inc. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-1-4919-2452-5.
  65. ^ Park, Sehyun; Im, Seongwon; Seol, Youhwan; Paek, Jeongyeup (2019). "Nodes in the Bitcoin Network: Comparative Measurement Study and Survey". IEEE Access. 7: 57009–57022. Bibcode:2019IEEEA...757009P. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2914098. S2CID 155106629.
  66. ^ a b Bedford Taylor, Michael (1 September 2017). "The Evolution of Bitcoin Hardware". Computer.
  67. ^ Kent, Peter; Bain, Tyler (13 July 2022). Cryptocurrency Mining for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781119885368.
  68. ^ Hern, Alex (17 January 2018). "Bitcoin's energy usage is huge – we can't afford to ignore it". The Guardian. from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  69. ^ Baraniuk, Chris (3 July 2019). "Bitcoin's global energy use 'equals Switzerland'". BBC News. from the original on 16 January 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  70. ^ "China's Crypto Crackdown Sends Miners Scurrying to Chilly Canada". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg L.P. 2 February 2018. from the original on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  71. ^ "Why China's bitcoin miners are moving to Texas". BBC News. 3 September 2021. from the original on 4 September 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  72. ^ "Cryptocurrency mining operation launched by Iron Bridge Resources". World Oil. 26 January 2018. from the original on 30 January 2018.
  73. ^ "Bitcoin and crypto currencies trending up today - Crypto Currency Daily Roundup June 25 - Market Exclusive". marketexclusive.com. 25 June 2018. from the original on 13 April 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  74. ^ "Iceland Expects to Use More Electricity Mining Bitcoin Than Powering Homes This Year". Fortune. from the original on 20 April 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  75. ^ "Bitcoin Mining Banned for First Time in Upstate New York Town". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg L.P. 16 March 2018. from the original on 20 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  76. ^ "Inside Kazakhstan's giant crypto-mine". BBC. 31 January 2022. from the original on 28 March 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  77. ^ "Bitcoin mania is hurting PC gamers by pushing up GPU prices". 30 January 2018. from the original on 2 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  78. ^ "Graphics card shortage leads retailers to take unusual measures". Polygon. 26 January 2018. from the original on 2 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  79. ^ "AMD, Nvidia must do more to stop cryptominers from causing PC gaming card shortages, price gouging". CNBC. 22 January 2018. from the original on 2 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  80. ^ "Nvidia suggests retailers put gamers over cryptocurrency miners in graphics card craze". Polygon. 23 January 2018. from the original on 2 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  81. ^ Cunningham, Andrew (18 April 2023). "Intel unceremoniously dumps its year-old Blockscale chips for bitcoin mining". Ars Technica. from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  82. ^ Arnott, Amy (2 August 2021). "A Basic Glossary of Terms for Crypto Newbies". Morningstar.com. from the original on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  83. ^ Jokić, Stevo; Cvetković, Aleksandar; Adamović, Saša; Ristić, Nenad; Spalević, Petar (2019). "Comparative analysis of cryptocurrency wallets vs traditional wallets". Ekonomika. 65 (3): 65–75. doi:10.5937/ekonomika1903065J. S2CID 208267171.
  84. ^ Lee, Justina (13 September 2018). "Mystery of the $2 Billion Bitcoin Whale That Fueled a Selloff". Bloomberg.com. from the original on 19 December 2018.
  85. ^ Galston, Ezra (16 June 2021). "Untraceable Bitcoin Is a Myth". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on 20 September 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  86. ^ Goodell, Geoff; Aste, Tomaso (2019). "Can Cryptocurrencies Preserve Privacy and Comply With Regulations?". Frontiers in Blockchain. 2: 4. arXiv:1811.12240. doi:10.3389/fbloc.2019.00004. ISSN 2624-7852.
  87. ^ "What You Need To Know About Zero Knowledge". TechCrunch. 7 February 2015. from the original on 20 February 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  88. ^ Greenberg, Andy (25 January 2017). "Monero, the Drug Dealer's Cryptocurrency of Choice, Is on Fire". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. from the original on 10 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  89. ^ Herskind, Lasse; Katsikouli, Panagiota; Dragoni, Nicola (2020). "Privacy and Cryptocurrencies—A Systematic Literature Review". IEEE Access. 8: 54044–54059. Bibcode:2020IEEEA...854044H. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2980950. ISSN 2169-3536.
  90. ^ "On the Instability of Bitcoin Without the Block Reward" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 5 June 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  91. ^ "Price Fluctuations and the Use of Bitcoin: An Empirical Inquiry" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  92. ^ Yaish, Aviv; Zohar, Aviv (18 June 2020). Correct Cryptocurrency ASIC Pricing: Are Miners Overpaying?. Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs). Vol. 282. pp. 2:1–2:25. arXiv:2002.11064. doi:10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2023.2. ISBN 9783959773034. S2CID 211296648.
  93. ^ "The Economics of Cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin and Beyond" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  94. ^ "Ethereum Median Transaction Fee historical chart". BitInfoCharts. from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  95. ^ "Bitcoin Median Transaction Fee historical chart". from the original on 28 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  96. ^ Scalability of the Bitcoin and Nano protocols: a comparative analysis (PDF), Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2018, (PDF) from the original on 19 December 2019, retrieved 18 December 2019
  97. ^ Pervez, Huma; Muneeb, Muhammad; Irfan, Muhammad Usama; Haq, Irfan Ul (19 December 2018), "A Comparative Analysis of DAG-Based Blockchain Architectures", 2018 12th International Conference on Open Source Systems and Technologies (ICOSST), IEEE, pp. 27–34, doi:10.1109/ICOSST.2018.8632193, ISBN 978-1-5386-9564-7, S2CID 59601449
  98. ^ Bencic, Federico Matteo; Podnar Zarko, Ivana (26 April 2018), "Distributed Ledger Technology: Blockchain Compared to Directed Acyclic Graph", 2018 IEEE 38th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), University of Zagreb, pp. 1569–1570, arXiv:1804.10013, doi:10.1109/ICDCS.2018.00171, ISBN 978-1-5386-6871-9, S2CID 13741873
  99. ^ . 2 November 2021. Archived from the original on 2 November 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  100. ^ Makarov, Igor; Schoar, Antoinette (2020). "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets" (PDF). Journal of Financial Economics. 135 (2): 293–319. doi:10.1016/j.jfineco.2019.07.001. S2CID 53072748. (PDF) from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  101. ^ Xu, Jiahua; Ackerer, Damien; Dubovitskaya, Alevtina (July 2021). "A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Cross-Chain Atomic Swaps with HTLCS". 2021 IEEE 41st International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS). pp. 584–594. arXiv:2011.11325. doi:10.1109/ICDCS51616.2021.00062. ISBN 978-1-6654-4513-9. S2CID 227126965. from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  102. ^ Wahba, Phil (18 February 2014). "First U.S. bitcoin ATMs to open soon in Seattle, Austin". Reuters. from the original on 19 October 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  103. ^ "CSA Staff Notice 46-307 Cryptocurrency Offerings". Ontario Securities Commission. 24 August 2017. from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  104. ^ "SEC Issues Investigative Report Concluding DAO Tokens, a Digital Asset, Were Securities". sec.gov. 25 July 2017. from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  105. ^ "Company Halts ICO After SEC Raises Registration Concerns". sec.gov. 11 December 2017. from the original on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  106. ^ "Switzerland sets out guidelines to support initial coin offerings". Financial Times. 16 February 2018. from the original on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  107. ^ Meynkhard, Artur (28 November 2019). "Fair market value of bitcoin: halving effect". Investment Management and Financial Innovations. 16 (4): 72–85. doi:10.21511/imfi.16(4).2019.07. S2CID 212850773.
  108. ^ Harris, Craig (10 June 2021). "Cryptocurrency to become option for some workers' 401(k) retirement plans, WSJ reports". USA TODAY. from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  109. ^ Morris, Chris (10 June 2021). "Coinbase will let you add crypto to your 401(k) through new deal". Fortune. from the original on 20 June 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  110. ^ Asymkos, Stephanie (10 June 2021). "Bitcoin and crypto go mainstream with new 401(k) retirement offering". money.yahoo.com. from the original on 17 June 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  111. ^ Russell-Jones, Lily (15 May 2022). "What's happening to cryptocurrencies?". Sunday Times. from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  112. ^ Tetrina, Kat (1 March 2022). "Top 10 Cryptocurrencies In March 2022". Forbes. from the original on 5 April 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  113. ^ "A history of cryptocurrency, from gaming tokens to a $2tn market". Financial Times. 30 November 2021. from the original on 24 October 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  114. ^ Russell-Jones, Lily. "Cryptocurrency market slumps below $1trn". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. from the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  115. ^ "Bitcoin, Other Cryptos Fall on Hot Inflation Report". WSJ. from the original on 24 October 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  116. ^ Vidal-Tomás, David (2022). "Which cryptocurrency data sources should scholars use?". International Review of Financial Analysis. 81: 102061. doi:10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102061. S2CID 246932706. from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  117. ^ Feuer, Alan (14 December 2013). "The Bitcoin Ideology". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  118. ^ Krugman, Paul (29 January 2018). "Opinion | Bubble, Bubble, Fraud and Trouble". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 4 June 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  119. ^ "Review of "The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism"". NewsClick. 28 October 2016. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  120. ^ Peters, Jeremy W.; Popper, Nathaniel (14 June 2018). "Stephen Bannon Buys Into Bitcoin". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  121. ^ "Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper | Satoshi Nakamoto Institute". satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  122. ^ Hayek, Friedrich A. von (Friedrich August) (1990). Denationalisation of money : the argument refined; an analysis of the theory and practice of concurrent currencies. Internet Archive. London : Institute of Economic Affairs. ISBN 978-0-255-36239-9.
  123. ^ Virtual Currency Schemes (PDF), European Central Bank, October 2012, ISBN 978-92-899-0862-7, (PDF) from the original on 25 May 2018, retrieved 1 March 2022
  124. ^ Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers, FATF, 2019, from the original on 26 July 2021, retrieved 22 July 2021
  125. ^ "interVASP Messaging Standards" (PDF). intervasp.org. (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  126. ^ "12-Month Review of the Revised FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers" (PDF). www.fatf-gafi.org. (PDF) from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  127. ^ "Travel Rule Specification - Bitcoin SV Technical Standards". tsc.bitcoinassociation.net. from the original on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  128. ^ Proposal for regulation of Markets in Crypto-assets, and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937, European Commission, 24 September 2020, from the original on 23 August 2021, retrieved 23 August 2021
  129. ^ Zetzsche, Dirk A.; Annunziata, Filippo; Arner, Douglas W.; Holdings, Kerry; Buckley, Ross P. (30 November 2020), The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and the EU Digital Finance Strategy, University of Oxford Faculty of Law, from the original on 23 August 2021, retrieved 23 August 2021
  130. ^ Flood, Chris (31 January 2022). "Crypto risks 'destabilising' emerging markets, says senior IMF official". Financial Times. from the original on 31 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  131. ^ Zhang, Sijia; Gregoriou, Andros (27 November 2020). "The price and liquidity impact of China forbidding initial coin offerings on the cryptocurrency market". Applied Economics Letters. 27 (20): 1695–1698. doi:10.1080/13504851.2020.1713979. ISSN 1350-4851. S2CID 214099348. from the original on 4 August 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  132. ^ "China bans financial, payment institutions from cryptocurrency business". Reuters. 18 May 2021. from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  133. ^ Nagarajan, Shalini (19 May 2021). "Bitcoin tumbles as low as $30,000 amid a broad crypto sell-off after China signals a crackdown". Business Insider. from the original on 12 July 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  134. ^ Shen, Samuel; John, Alun (19 June 2021). "China's cryptocurrency-mining crackdown spreads to Sichuan". Reuters. from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  135. ^ "In a world first, El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender". Reuters. 9 June 2021. from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  136. ^ "RBI Lost Case on Cryptocurrency in Supreme Court, It Must Stop Behaving Like Sore Loser". News18. 18 September 2021. from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  137. ^ Perumal, Prashanth (2 June 2021). "Future of cryptocurrency in India continues to hang in the balance". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  138. ^ "From ban to regulation, cryptocurrency's journey so far in India". The Indian Express. 1 December 2021. from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  139. ^ "SC Verdict On Cryptocurrencies: What It Means For Investors". Moneycontrol. 25 March 2020. from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  140. ^ "Why is the Indian government cracking down on cryptocurrency?". Deutsche Welle. from the original on 28 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  141. ^ mumbaiuncensoredadmin (15 January 2022). "The Crypto Effect : Framework, challenges & The way forward". from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  142. ^ "South Africa Moves to Tighten Crypto Regulation After Scams". www.bloomberg.com. 29 June 2021. from the original on 7 July 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  143. ^ a b "South Africa's $4 billion in crypto scams has regulators scrambling to bring in new regulations within the next three to six months". Business Insider. 1 July 2021. from the original on 13 July 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  144. ^ a b "South Korea Tightens Regulations on Cryptocurrencies". thediplomat.com. 3 July 2021. from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  145. ^ "FINMA Guidance 02/2019" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  146. ^ "No more kebabs for bitcoins as Turkey's crypto-payment ban looms". Reuters. 28 April 2021. from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  147. ^ "Bitcoin Exchange | Cryptocurrency Exchange". Binance. from the original on 3 August 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  148. ^ Samson, Adam (27 June 2021). "Financial watchdog bans crypto exchange Binance from UK". Financial Times. from the original on 12 July 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  149. ^ Morton, Heather (16 December 2021). "Cryptocurrency 2021 Legislation". National Conference of State Legislatures. from the original on 10 February 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  150. ^ Pimentel, Benjamin (11 August 2021). "SEC chair pleads for power to protect crypto investors in 'volatile sector'". protocol. from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  151. ^ Macheel, Tanaya (18 October 2021). "First bitcoin futures ETF to make its debut Tuesday on the NYSE, ProShares says". CNBC. from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  152. ^ Franck, Thomas (20 May 2021). "U.S. Treasury calls for stricter cryptocurrency compliance with IRS, says they pose tax evasion risk". CNBC. from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  153. ^ "US Justice Department taps new cryptocurrency czar". Aljazeera. from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  154. ^ "Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets". The White House. 9 March 2022. from the original on 14 March 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  155. ^ "FACT SHEET: White House Releases First-Ever Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets". The White House. 16 September 2022. from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  156. ^ Wolff, Josephine (17 October 2022). "The competing priorities facing U.S. crypto regulations". Brookings. from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  157. ^ "Crypto Exchange Kraken Ends Staking Program in $30 Million SEC Settlement". Bloomberg.com. 9 February 2023. from the original on 24 February 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2023.
  158. ^ "US watchdog warns of risks of buying crypto asset securities". Reuters.com. 23 March 2023. from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  159. ^ Ehrlich, Steven. "Janet Yellen, Bitcoin And Crypto Fearmongers Get Pushback From Former CIA Director". Forbes. from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  160. ^ Kharpal, Arjun (12 April 2017). "Bitcoin value rises over $1 billion as Japan, Russia move to legitimize cryptocurrency". CNBC. from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  161. ^ "Regulation of Cryptocurrency Around the World: November 2021 Update" (PDF). Library of Congress. The Law Library of Congress, Global Legal Research Center. November 2021. pp. 1–61. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  162. ^ Fung, Brian (21 May 2018). "State regulators unveil nationwide crackdown on suspicious cryptocurrency investment schemes". The Washington Post. from the original on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  163. ^ Bitcoin's Legality Around The World 16 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Forbes, 31 January 2014
  164. ^ Tasca, Paolo (7 September 2015). "Digital Currencies: Principles, Trends, Opportunities, and Risks". SSRN 2657598.
  165. ^ Thompson, Luke (24 August 2018). "Bank of Thailand to launch its own crypto-currency". Asia Times. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  166. ^ a b c Weinglass, Simona (28 March 2018). "European Union bans binary options, strictly regulates CFDs". The Times of Israel. from the original on 1 April 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  167. ^ "Google Ads updates cryptocurrency ad policies". Search Engine Land. 3 June 2021. from the original on 16 January 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  168. ^ "Facebook retreats from crypto ad ban". CNBC. 1 December 2021. from the original on 3 September 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  169. ^ Alsoszatai-Petheo, Melissa (14 May 2018). "Bing Ads to disallow cryptocurrency advertising". Microsoft. from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  170. ^ "Crypto exchange ads now allowed on Microsoft Ads (with pre-approval)". Search Engine Land. 1 June 2022. from the original on 7 July 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  171. ^ a b Wilson, Thomas (28 March 2018). "Twitter and LinkedIn ban cryptocurrency adverts – leaving regulators behind". Independent. Reuters. from the original on 4 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  172. ^ French, Jordan (2 April 2018). "3 Key Factors Behind Bitcoin's Current Slide". theStreet.com. from the original on 3 April 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  173. ^ Schaub, Mark; Phares, H. Banker (15 August 2020). "Cryptocurrency value changes in response to national elections: do they behave like money or commodities?". Applied Economics Letters. 27 (14): 1135–1140. doi:10.1080/13504851.2019.1673297. ISSN 1350-4851. S2CID 211450156. from the original on 27 March 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  174. ^ Iwamura, Mitsuru; Kitamura, Yukinobu; Matsumoto, Tsutomu (28 February 2014). "Is Bitcoin the Only Cryptocurrency in the Town? Economics of Cryptocurrency and Friedrich A. Hayek". SSRN 2405790.
  175. ^ a b c d e Ali, S, T; Clarke, D; McCorry, P; Bitcoin: Perils of an Unregulated Global P2P Currency. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University: Computing Science, 2015. Technical Report Series, No. CS-TR-1470
  176. ^ "How white supremacists and the far right use Bitcoin to evade the law and get rich". Fortune. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  177. ^ "How white supremacists and the far right use Bitcoin to evade the law and get rich". Fortune. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  178. ^ Mt. Gox Seeks Bankruptcy After $480 Million Bitcoin Loss 12 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Carter Dougherty and Grace Huang, Bloomberg News, 28 February 2014
  179. ^ Russell, Jon. "Tether, a startup that works with bitcoin exchanges, claims a hacker stole $31M". TechCrunch. from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  180. ^ Iyengar, Rishi (7 December 2017). "More than $70 million stolen in bitcoin hack". CNNMoney. from the original on 20 September 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  181. ^ Haselton, Todd (19 December 2017). "A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange files for bankruptcy after hack, says users will get 75% of assets for now". CNBC. from the original on 6 September 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  182. ^ "South Korean cryptocurrency exchange to file for bankruptcy after hacking". Reuters. 19 December 2017. from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  183. ^ Cimpanu, Catalin (4 September 2018). "Bitcoin Gold delisted from major cryptocurrency exchange after refusing to pay hack damages". ZDNet. from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  184. ^ "Former Virtual Currency CEO Involved in $9 Million Fraud Scheme Sentenced to Prison". www.justice.gov. 13 September 2018. from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  185. ^ Cyris Farivar, GAW Miners founder owes nearly $10 million to SEC over Bitcoin fraud 29 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Ars Technica (5 October 2017).
  186. ^ Shane, Daniel (29 January 2018). "$530 million cryptocurrency heist may be biggest ever". CNNMoney. from the original on 15 August 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  187. ^ Shane, Daniel (11 June 2018). "Billions in cryptocurrency wealth wiped out after hack". CNNMoney. from the original on 11 July 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  188. ^ Lam, Eric; Lee, Jiyeun; Robertson, Jordan (10 June 2018), Cryptocurrencies Lose $42 Billion After South Korean Bourse Hack, Bloomberg News, from the original on 12 June 2018, retrieved 12 June 2018
  189. ^ Roberts, Jeff John (9 July 2018). "Another Crypto Fail: Hackers Steal $23.5 Million from Token Service Bancor". Fortune. from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  190. ^ Houben, Robby; Snyers, Alexander (April 2020), Crypto-assets: Key developments, regulatory concerns and responses (PDF), EU Directorate-General for Internal Policies, (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2021, retrieved 16 July 2021
  191. ^ "Attorney General William P. Barr Announces Publication of Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework". www.justice.gov. 8 October 2020. from the original on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  192. ^ "DOJ Releases Cryptocurrency Enforcement Report". The National Law Review. from the original on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  193. ^ "National risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing 2020". GOV.UK. from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  194. ^ Campbell-Verduyn, Malcolm (1 March 2018). "Bitcoin, crypto-coins, and global anti-money laundering governance". Crime, Law and Social Change. 69 (2): 288. doi:10.1007/s10611-017-9756-5. ISSN 1573-0751. S2CID 149437925.
  195. ^ "Report: Illicit activity actually a tiny part of cryptocurrency use". 6 January 2022. from the original on 23 August 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  196. ^ Sun, Mengqi; Smagalla, David (6 January 2022). "Cryptocurrency-Based Crime Hit a Record $14 Billion in 2021". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  197. ^ "Crypto Crime Trends for 2022: Illicit Transaction Activity Reaches All-Time High in Value, All-Time Low in Share of All Cryptocurrency Activity". Chainalysis. 6 January 2022. from the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  198. ^ Ye, Josh (22 December 2021). "Hot Hong Kong NFT project Monkey Kingdom loses US$1.3 million in hack, exposing security concerns". SCMP. from the original on 13 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  199. ^ "Crypto money laundering rises 30%, report finds". BBC News. 26 January 2022. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  200. ^ Sackey, Andrew; Shah, Hinesh (4 February 2022). "Cryptocurrency money laundering on DeFi skyrockets". Pinsent Masons. from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  201. ^ a b "Russian Cybercriminals Drive Significant Ransomware and Cryptocurrency-based Money Laundering Activity". Chainalysis. 14 February 2022. from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  202. ^ Bergwick, Angus (13 October 2023). "The Crypto Exchange Moving Money for Criminal Gangs, Rich Russians and a Hamas-Linked Terror Group". Wall Street Journal.
  203. ^ "Founder and Majority Owner of Bitzlato, a Cryptocurrency Exchange, Charged with Unlicensed Money Transmitting". www.justice.gov. 18 January 2023. from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  204. ^ Flitter, Emily; Yaffe-Bellany, David (23 February 2022). "Russia Could Use Cryptocurrency to Blunt the Force of U.S. Sanctions". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  205. ^ Matthews, Owen (18 September 2017). "Why Russia is finally embracing virtual currencies. Hint: It rhymes with honey wandering". Newsweek. from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  206. ^ "Cross-chain Crime: More Than Half a Billion Dollars has Been Laundered Through a Cross-chain Bridge". Elliptic Connect. 8 October 2022. from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  207. ^ Raeesi, Reza (23 April 2015). "The Silk Road, Bitcoins and the Global Prohibition Regime on the International Trade in Illicit Drugs: Can this Storm Be Weathered?". Glendon Journal of International Studies / Revue d'Études Internationales de Glendon. 8 (1–2). ISSN 2291-3920. from the original on 22 December 2015.
  208. ^ a b "Six Months After Bitwise, Wash Trading Lives on in Crypto | Finance Magnates". Financial and Business News | Finance Magnates. 25 September 2019. from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  209. ^ Bovaird, Charles. "95% Of Reported Bitcoin Trading Volume Is Fake, Says Bitwise". Forbes. from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  210. ^ U.S. Warns Banks, Crypto Firms Against Potential Efforts to Evade Russian Sanctions 10 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine (9 March 2022) www.wsj.com. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  211. ^ "US cryptocurrency expert jailed for helping North Korea evade sanctions". BBC News. 13 April 2022. from the original on 14 May 2022. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  212. ^ a b Janda, Michael (18 June 2018). "Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin cannot replace money, says Bank for International Settlements". ABC (Australia). from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  213. ^ Hyun Song Shin (June 2018). "Chapter V. Cryptocurrencies: looking beyond the hype" (PDF). BIS 2018 Annual Economic Report. Bank for International Settlements. (PDF) from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018. Put in the simplest terms, the quest for decentralised trust has quickly become an environmental disaster.
  214. ^ Hiltzik, Michael (18 June 2018). "Is this scathing report the death knell for bitcoin?". Los Angeles Times. from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  215. ^ Polgar, David (28 February 2018). "Cryptocurrency is a giant multi-level marketing scheme". Quartz. Quartz Media LLC. from the original on 1 March 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  216. ^ Analysis of Cryptocurrency Bubbles 24 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Bitcoins and Bank Runs: Analysis of Market Imperfections and Investor Hysterics. Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  217. ^ McCrum, Dan (10 November 2015), "Bitcoin's place in the long history of pyramid schemes", Financial Times, from the original on 23 March 2017
  218. ^ Kim, Tae (27 July 2017), Billionaire investor Marks, who called the dotcom bubble, says bitcoin is a 'pyramid scheme', CNBC, from the original on 5 September 2017
  219. ^ Schwartzkopff, Frances (17 December 2013). "Bitcoins Spark Regulatory Crackdown as Denmark Drafts Rules". Bloomberg. from the original on 29 December 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  220. ^ Fedorova, Anna (17 June 2021). "FCA warns on UK crypto use increase despite gaps in understanding". Investment Week. from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  221. ^ Oliver, Joshua (17 June 2021). "Most would-be crypto investors unaware of UK regulator's warnings". Financial Times. from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  222. ^ Browne, Ryan (19 October 2021). "Most young crypto traders don't realize it's not regulated, UK markets watchdog says". CNBC. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  223. ^ "Unauthorised firms and individuals". Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 19 August 2021. from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  224. ^ Sidel, Robin (22 December 2013). "Banks Mostly Avoid Providing Bitcoin Services. Lenders Don't Share Investors' Enthusiasm for the Virtual-Currency Craze". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  225. ^ "Central Bank official warns on Bitcoin impact". RTE. 3 July 2014. from the original on 9 February 2015.
  226. ^ "Warnings and blacklists of unauthorized companies and websites: Forex, binary options, miscellaneous goods, crypto-assets derivatives, usurpations". AMF. from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  227. ^ "Bitcoin Is Still Concentrated in a Few Hands, Study Finds". Time. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  228. ^ "Bitcoin's price just passed a huge milestone". Fortune. from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  229. ^ Popper, Nathaniel (13 June 2018). "Bitcoin's Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say". CNBC. from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  230. ^ Lowenstein, Roger (12 November 2022). "FTX's founder was called a modern-day J.P. Morgan. The analogy still works". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  231. ^ Son, Hugh (17 March 2021). "Morgan Stanley becomes the first big U.S. bank to offer its wealthy clients access to bitcoin funds". CNBC. from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  232. ^ Franck, Thomas (11 February 2021). "BNY Mellon to offer bitcoin services, a validation of crypto from a key bank in the financial system". CNBC. from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  233. ^ "Venmo adds support for buying, holding and selling cryptocurrencies". TechCrunch. 20 April 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.[permanent dead link]
  234. ^ "Buying Cryptocurrency on Venmo". Venmo. from the original on 31 July 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  235. ^ Son, Hugh (25 October 2021). "Mastercard says any bank or merchant on its vast network can soon offer crypto services". CNBC. from the original on 28 November 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  236. ^ Foteinis, Spyros (7 February 2018). "Bitcoin's alarming carbon footprint". Nature. 554 (7691): 169. Bibcode:2018Natur.554..169F. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-01625-x.
  237. ^ Krause, Max J.; Tolaymat, Thabet (November 2018). "Quantification of energy and carbon costs for mining cryptocurrencies". Nature Sustainability. 1 (11): 711–718. Bibcode:2018NatSu...1..711K. doi:10.1038/s41893-018-0152-7. S2CID 169170289.
  238. ^ Stoll, Christian; Klaaßen, Lena; Gallersdörfer, Ulrich (July 2019). "The Carbon Footprint of Bitcoin". Joule. 3 (7): 1647–1661. doi:10.1016/j.joule.2019.05.012.
  239. ^ Davies, Pascale (26 February 2022). "Bitcoin mining is worse for the environment now since China banned it". euronews. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  240. ^ Huang, Jon; O’Neill, Claire; Tabuchi, Hiroko (3 September 2021). "Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries. How Is That Possible?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  241. ^ "Bitcoin energy consumption worldwide 2017-2021". Statista. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  242. ^ de Vries, Alex (April 2019). "Renewable Energy Will Not Solve Bitcoin's Sustainability Problem". Joule. 3 (4): 893–898. doi:10.1016/j.joule.2019.02.007. S2CID 169784459.
  243. ^ Livni, Ephrat (11 October 2021). "Can Crypto Go Green?". The New York Times. from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  244. ^ Ponciano, Jonathan. "Bill Gates Sounds Alarm On Bitcoin's Energy Consumption–Here's Why Crypto Is Bad For Climate Change". Forbes. from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  245. ^ Dance, Gabriel J. X.; Wallace, Tim; Levitt, Zach (10 April 2023). "The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  246. ^ Harper, Chris (13 May 2021). "The most energy efficient cryptocurrency after Tesla axed Bitcoin". BirminghamLive. from the original on 13 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  247. ^ Gedeon, Kimberly (1 June 2021). "The most energy-efficient cryptocurrencies — Tesla's top picks to replace Bitcoin". LaptopMag. from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  248. ^ Lacey, Rachel (1 March 2022). "Everything you need to know about eco-friendly cryptocurrencies". The Times. from the original on 8 May 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  249. ^ Ossinger, Joanna (2 February 2022). "Polkadot Has Least Carbon Footprint, Crypto Researcher Says". Bloomberg. from the original on 12 April 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  250. ^ Spencer Jones, Jonathan (13 September 2021). . Smart Energy International. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  251. ^ Fridgen, Gilbert; Körner, Marc-Fabian; Walters, Steffen; Weibelzahl, Martin (9 March 2021). "Not All Doom and Gloom: How Energy-Intensive and Temporally Flexible Data Center Applications May Actually Promote Renewable Energy Sources". Business & Information Systems Engineering. 63 (3): 243–256. doi:10.1007/s12599-021-00686-z. ISSN 2363-7005. S2CID 233664180. To gain applicable knowledge, this paper evaluates the developed model by means of two use-cases with real-world data, namely AWS computing instances for training Machine Learning algorithms and Bitcoin mining as relevant DC applications. The results illustrate that for both cases the NPV of the IES compared to a stand-alone RES-plant increases, which may lead to a promotion of RES-plants.
  252. ^ Dajani, Mona E. (26 April 2021). "Green Bitcoin Does Not Have to Be an Oxymoron". news.bloomberglaw.com. from the original on 16 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022. One way to invest in Bitcoin that has a positive effect on renewable energy is to encourage mining operations near wind or solar sites. This provides a customer for power that might otherwise need to be transmitted or stored, saving money as well as carbon.
  253. ^ Eid, Bilal; Islam, Md Rabiul; Shah, Rakibuzzaman; Nahid, Abdullah-Al; Kouzani, Abbas Z.; Mahmud, M. A. Parvez (1 November 2021). "Enhanced Profitability of Photovoltaic Plants By Utilizing Cryptocurrency-Based Mining Load". IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. 31 (8): 1–5. Bibcode:2021ITAS...3196503E. doi:10.1109/TASC.2021.3096503. hdl:20.500.11782/2513. ISSN 1558-2515. S2CID 237245955. from the original on 28 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022. The grid connected photovoltaic (PV) power plants (PVPPs) are booming nowadays. The main problem facing the PV power plants deployment is the intermittency which leads to instability of the grid. [...] This paper investigating the usage of a customized load - cryptocurrency mining rig - to create an added value for the owner of the plant and increase the ROI of the project. [...] The developed strategy is able to keep the profitability as high as possible during the fluctuation of the mining network.
  254. ^ Bastian-Pinto, Carlos L.; Araujo, Felipe V. de S.; Brandão, Luiz E.; Gomes, Leonardo L. (1 March 2021). "Hedging renewable energy investments with Bitcoin mining". Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 138: 110520. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2020.110520. ISSN 1364-0321. S2CID 228861639. Windfarms can hedge electricity price risk by investing in Bitcoin mining. [...] These findings, which can also be applied to other renewable energy sources, may be of interest to both the energy generator as well as the system regulator as it creates an incentive for early investment in sustainable and renewable energy sources.
  255. ^ Rennie, Ellie (2021). "Climate change and the legitimacy of Bitcoin". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3961105. ISSN 1556-5068. S2CID 244155800.
  256. ^ Want to make money off Bitcoin mining? Hint: Don't mine 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine, The Week, 15 April 2013
  257. ^ Keeping Your Cryptocurrency Safe 12 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Center for a Stateless Society, 1 April 2014
  258. ^ Hertig, Alyssa (15 September 2015). "Introducing Ledger, the First Bitcoin-Only Academic Journal". Motherboard. from the original on 10 January 2017.
  259. ^ . ledgerjournal.org. Archived from the original on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  260. ^ "How to Write and Format an Article for Ledger" (PDF). Ledger. 2015. doi:10.5195/LEDGER.2015.1 (inactive 31 January 2024). (PDF) from the original on 22 September 2015.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
  261. ^ Mendoza, Ron (14 October 2019). "UNICEF Blockchain Fund: First UN organization To Accept Cryptocurrency Donations". IB Times. from the original on 14 October 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  262. ^ "UNICEF launches Cryptocurrency Fund". www.unicef.org. 9 October 2019. from the original on 2 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  263. ^ Doshi, Vidhi (9 October 2019). "Unicef now accepting donations through bitcoin and ether". The Guardian. from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  264. ^ Murray, Allison (2 March 2022). "Charities are turning to bitcoin and NFTs to raise money. Not everyone thinks it's a great idea". ZDNet. from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  265. ^ Martin, Katie; Nauman, Billy (20 May 2021). "Bitcoin's growing energy problem: 'It's a dirty currency'". Financial Times. from the original on 9 February 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  266. ^ Browne, Ryan (27 February 2022). "Ukraine government raises over $10 million in cryptocurrency donations". CNBC. from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  267. ^ Ciolli, Jacqui Frank, Kara Chin, Joe. "Paul Krugman: Bitcoin is a more obvious bubble than housing was". Business Insider. from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  268. ^ Shiller, Robert (1 March 2014). "In Search of a Stable Electronic Currency". The New York Times. from the original on 24 October 2014.
  269. ^ Costelloe, Kevin (29 November 2017). "Bitcoin 'Ought to Be Outlawed,' Nobel Prize Winner Stiglitz Says". Bloomberg. from the original on 12 June 2018. It doesn't serve any socially useful function.
  270. ^ "Economics Nobel prize winner, Richard Thaler: 'The market that looks most like a bubble to me is Bitcoin and its brethren'". ECO Portuguese Economy. 22 January 2018. from the original on 12 June 2018.
  271. ^ a b c d Wolff-Mann, Ethan (27 April 2018). "'Only good for drug dealers': More Nobel prize winners snub bitcoin". Yahoo Finance. from the original on 12 June 2018.
  272. ^ Kearns, Jeff (4 December 2013). "Greenspan Says Bitcoin a Bubble Without Intrinsic Currency Value". bloomberg.com. Bloomberg LP. from the original on 29 December 2013.
  273. ^ "Central banker takes stab at bitcoin 'bubble'". Phys.org. AFP. 6 February 2018. from the original on 12 June 2018.
  274. ^ "Bitcoin is like Tulipmania, says ECB vice-president". The Financial Times. 22 September 2017. from the original on 30 September 2017.
  275. ^ Hern, Alex (4 December 2013). "Bitcoin hype worse than 'tulip mania', says Dutch central banker". The Guardian. from the original on 20 March 2017.
  276. ^ Crippen, Alex (14 March 2014). "Bitcoin? Here's what Warren Buffett is saying". CNBC. from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  277. ^ Porzecanski, Katia (25 January 2018). "George Soros: Bitcoin is a bubble, Trump is a 'danger to the world'". Globe and Mail. Bloomberg News. from the original on 9 June 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  278. ^ Yang, Yingzhi (18 May 2018). "There's a bitcoin bubble, says Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma". South China Morning Post. from the original on 10 June 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  279. ^ Cheng, Evelyn (7 June 2018). "Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon on bitcoin: Beware". CNBC. from the original on 9 June 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  280. ^ Kim, Tae (9 January 2018). "Jamie Dimon says he regrets calling bitcoin a fraud and believes in the technology behind it". CNBC. from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  281. ^ Imbert, Fred (13 October 2017). "BlackRock CEO Larry Fink calls bitcoin an 'index of money laundering'". CNBC. from the original on 30 October 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  282. ^ Browne, Ryan (15 June 2022). "Bill Gates says crypto and NFTs are '100% based on greater fool theory'". CNBC. from the original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  283. ^ Müller, Lukas; Ong, Malik (17 February 2020). "Aktuelles zum Recht der Kryptowährungen" [Current state of the law of crypto currencies] (PDF). Aktuelle Juristische Praxis / Pratique Juridique Actuelle (in German) (2). (PDF) from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  284. ^ Baer, Katherine; De Mooij, Ruud; Hebous, Shafik; Keen, Michael (2023). "Taxing cryptocurrencies". Oxford Review of Economic Policy. 39 (3): 478–497. doi:10.1093/oxrep/grad035.
  285. ^ Emem, Mark (12 June 2019). "Chinese Bitcoin Trader Commits Suicide after Losing 2,000 BTC on 100x Leverage Bet". finance.yahoo.com. from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  286. ^ Evans, Holly; Sharman, Laura (17 February 2022). "Bitcoin trader, 23, takes own life after break-up and losing all his money". Mirror. from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  287. ^ Sarlin, Jon (17 May 2022). "Stablecoins were supposed to be 'stable.' Then the crash came". CNN. from the original on 29 May 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2022.

Further reading

  • Chayka, Kyle (2 July 2013). "What Comes After Bitcoin?". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  • Guadamuz, Andres; Marsden, Chris (2015). "Blockchains and Bitcoin: Regulatory responses to cryptocurrencies" (PDF). First Monday. 20 (12). doi:10.5210/fm.v20i12.6198. S2CID 811921.

External links

  •   Media related to Cryptocurrency at Wikimedia Commons
  •   Quotations related to Cryptocurrency at Wikiquote
  •   Learning materials related to Should cryptocurrencies be banned? at Wikiversity
cryptocurrency, confused, with, virtual, currency, cryptocurrency, crypto, currency, crypto, digital, currency, designed, work, medium, exchange, through, computer, network, that, reliant, central, authority, such, government, bank, uphold, maintain, logo, bit. Not to be confused with Virtual currency A cryptocurrency crypto currency or crypto a is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority such as a government or bank to uphold or maintain it 2 A logo for Bitcoin the first decentralized cryptocurrencyThe genesis block of Bitcoin s blockchain with a note containing The Times newspaper headline This note has been interpreted as a comment on the instability caused by fractional reserve banking 1 18 Individual coin ownership records are stored in a digital ledger which is a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records control the creation of additional coins and verify the transfer of coin ownership 3 4 5 Despite the term that has come to describe many of the fungible blockchain tokens that have been created cryptocurrencies are not considered to be currencies in the traditional sense and varying legal treatments have been applied to them in various jurisdicitons including classification as commodities securities and currencies cryptocurrencies are generally viewed as a distinct asset class in practice 6 7 8 Some crypto schemes use validators to maintain the cryptocurrency In a proof of stake model owners put up their tokens as collateral In return they get authority over the token in proportion to the amount they stake Generally these token stakers get additional ownership in the token over time via network fees newly minted tokens or other such reward mechanisms 9 Cryptocurrency does not exist in physical form like paper money and is typically not issued by a central authority Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to a central bank digital currency CBDC 10 When a cryptocurrency is minted created prior to issuance or issued by a single issuer it is generally considered centralized When implemented with decentralized control each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology typically a blockchain that serves as a public financial transaction database 11 The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin which was first released as open source software in 2009 As of June 2023 there were more than 25 000 other cryptocurrencies in the marketplace of which more than 40 had a market capitalization exceeding 1 billion 12 Contents 1 History 2 Formal definition 2 1 Altcoins 2 1 1 Stablecoins 3 Architecture 3 1 Blockchain 3 2 Nodes 3 2 1 Timestamping 3 3 Mining 3 3 1 GPU price rise 3 3 2 Mining accelerator chips 3 4 Wallets 3 5 Anonymity 4 Economics 4 1 Block rewards 4 2 Transaction fees 4 3 Exchanges 4 4 Atomic swaps 4 5 ATMs 4 6 Initial coin offerings 4 7 Price trends 4 8 Volatility 4 9 Databases 5 Social and political aspects 6 Increasing regulation 6 1 China 6 2 El Salvador 6 3 India 6 4 South Africa 6 5 South Korea 6 6 Switzerland 6 7 Turkey 6 8 United Kingdom 6 9 United States 7 Legality 7 1 Advertising bans 7 2 U S tax status 7 3 Legal concerns relating to an unregulated global economy 7 4 Loss theft and fraud 7 5 Money laundering 7 6 Darknet markets 7 7 Wash trades 7 8 As a tool to evade sanctions 8 Impacts and analysis 8 1 Speculation fraud and adoption 8 2 Non fungible tokens 8 3 Banks 8 4 Environmental effects 8 5 Technological limitations 8 6 Academic studies 8 7 Aid agencies 8 8 Criticism 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External linksHistorySee also History of bitcoin In 1983 American cryptographer David Chaum conceived of a type of cryptographic electronic money called ecash 13 14 Later in 1995 he implemented it through Digicash 15 an early form of cryptographic electronic payments Digicash required user software in order to withdraw notes from a bank and designate specific encrypted keys before it can be sent to a recipient This allowed the digital currency to be untraceable by a third party In 1996 the National Security Agency published a paper entitled How to Make a Mint The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash describing a cryptocurrency system The paper was first published in an MIT mailing list 16 and later in 1997 in The American Law Review 17 In 1998 Wei Dai described b money an anonymous distributed electronic cash system 18 Shortly thereafter Nick Szabo described bit gold 19 Like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that would follow it bit gold not to be confused with the later gold based exchange BitGold was described as an electronic currency system which required users to complete a proof of work function with solutions being cryptographically put together and published In January 2009 Bitcoin was created by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto It used SHA 256 a cryptographic hash function in its proof of work scheme 20 21 In April 2011 Namecoin was created as an attempt at forming a decentralized DNS In October 2011 Litecoin was released which used scrypt as its hash function instead of SHA 256 Peercoin created in August 2012 used a hybrid of proof of work and proof of stake 22 See also Cryptocurrency bubble History Cryptocurrency has undergone several periods of growth and retraction including several bubbles and market crashes such as in 2011 2013 2014 15 2017 2018 and 2021 2023 23 24 On 6 August 2014 the UK announced its Treasury had commissioned a study of cryptocurrencies and what role if any they could play in the UK economy The study was also to report on whether regulation should be considered 25 Its final report was published in 2018 26 and it issued a consultation on cryptoassets and stablecoins in January 2021 27 In June 2021 El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender after the Legislative Assembly had voted 62 22 to pass a bill submitted by President Nayib Bukele classifying the cryptocurrency as such 28 In August 2021 Cuba followed with Resolution 215 to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin 29 In September 2021 the government of China the single largest market for cryptocurrency declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal This completed a crackdown on cryptocurrency that had previously banned the operation of intermediaries and miners within China 30 On 15 September 2022 the world s second largest cryptocurrency at that time Ethereum transitioned its consensus mechanism from proof of work PoW to proof of stake PoS in an upgrade process known as the Merge According to the Ethereum Founder the upgrade can cut both Ethereum s energy use and carbon dioxide emissions by 99 9 31 On 11 November 2022 FTX Trading Ltd a cryptocurrency exchange which also operated a crypto hedge fund and had been valued at 18 billion 32 filed for bankruptcy 33 The financial impact of the collapse extended beyond the immediate FTX customer base as reported 34 while at a Reuters conference financial industry executives said that regulators must step in to protect crypto investors 35 Technology analyst Avivah Litan commented on the cryptocurrency ecosystem that everything needs to improve dramatically in terms of user experience controls safety customer service 36 Formal definitionAccording to Jan Lansky a cryptocurrency is a system that meets six conditions 37 The system does not require a central authority its state is maintained through distributed consensus The system keeps an overview of cryptocurrency units and their ownership The system defines whether new cryptocurrency units can be created If new cryptocurrency units can be created the system defines the circumstances of their origin and how to determine the ownership of these new units Ownership of cryptocurrency units can be proved exclusively cryptographically The system allows transactions to be performed in which ownership of the cryptographic units is changed A transaction statement can only be issued by an entity proving the current ownership of these units If two different instructions for changing the ownership of the same cryptographic units are simultaneously entered the system performs at most one of them In March 2018 the word cryptocurrency was added to the Merriam Webster Dictionary 38 Altcoins Further information List of cryptocurrencies After the early innovation of Bitcoin in 2008 and the early network effect gained by Bitcoin tokens cryptocurrencies and other digital assets that were not Bitcoin became collectively known during the 2010s as alternative cryptocurrencies 39 40 41 or altcoins 42 Sometimes the term alt coins was used 43 44 or disparagingly shitcoins 45 Paul Vigna of The Wall Street Journal described altcoins in 2020 as alternative versions of Bitcoin 46 given its role as the model protocol for cryptocurrency designers A Polytechnic University of Catalonia thesis in 2021 used a somewhat broader description Not just as alternative versions of Bitcoin itself but for any cryptocurrency other than bitcoin As of early 2020 there were more than 5 000 cryptocurrencies Altcoin is the combination of two words alt and coin and includes all alternatives to Bitcoin 42 14 nbsp The logo of Ethereum the second largest cryptocurrencyAltcoins often have underlying differences when compared to Bitcoin For example Litecoin aims to process a block every 2 5 minutes rather than Bitcoin s 10 minutes which allows Litecoin to confirm transactions faster than Bitcoin 47 Another example is Ethereum which has smart contract functionality that allows decentralized applications to be run on its blockchain 48 Ethereum was the most used blockchain in 2020 according to Bloomberg News 49 In 2016 it had the largest following of any altcoin according to the New York Times 50 Significant market price rallies across multiple altcoin markets are often referred to as an altseason 51 52 Stablecoins Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable level of purchasing power 53 Notably these designs are not foolproof as a number of stablecoins have crashed or lost their peg For example on 11 May 2022 Terra s stablecoin UST fell from 1 to 26 cents 54 55 The subsequent failure of Terraform Labs resulted in the loss of nearly 40B invested in the Terra and Luna coins 56 In September 2022 South Korean prosecutors requested the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice against the company s founder Do Kwon 57 In Hong Kong the expected regulatory framework for stablecoins in 2023 24 is being shaped and includes a few considerations 58 ArchitectureThis section duplicates the scope of other articles specifically Blockchain Please discuss this issue and help introduce a summary style to the section by replacing the section with a link and a summary or by splitting the content into a new article August 2022 Cryptocurrency is produced by an entire cryptocurrency system collectively at a rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly stated In centralized banking and economic systems such as the US Federal Reserve System corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency citation needed In the case of cryptocurrency companies or governments cannot produce new units and have not so far provided backing for other firms banks or corporate entities which hold asset value measured in it The underlying technical system upon which cryptocurrencies are based was created by Satoshi Nakamoto 59 Within a proof of work system such as Bitcoin the safety integrity and balance of ledgers is maintained by a community of mutually distrustful parties referred to as miners Miners use their computers to help validate and timestamp transactions adding them to the ledger in accordance with a particular timestamping scheme 20 In a proof of stake blockchain transactions are validated by holders of the associated cryptocurrency sometimes grouped together in stake pools Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually decrease the production of that currency placing a cap on the total amount of that currency that will ever be in circulation 60 Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand cryptocurrencies can be more difficult for seizure by law enforcement 3 Blockchain Main article Blockchain The validity of each cryptocurrency s coins is provided by a blockchain A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records called blocks which are linked and secured using cryptography 59 61 Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block 61 a timestamp and transaction data 62 By design blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data It is an open distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way 63 For use as a distributed ledger a blockchain is typically managed by a peer to peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks Once recorded the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks which requires collusion of the network majority Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain 64 Nodes A node is a computer that connects to a cryptocurrency network The node supports the cryptocurrency s network through either relaying transactions validation or hosting a copy of the blockchain In terms of relaying transactions each network computer node has a copy of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency it supports When a transaction is made the node creating the transaction broadcasts details of the transaction using encryption to other nodes throughout the node network so that the transaction and every other transaction is known Node owners are either volunteers those hosted by the organization or body responsible for developing the cryptocurrency blockchain network technology or those who are enticed to host a node to receive rewards from hosting the node network 65 Timestamping Cryptocurrencies use various timestamping schemes to prove the validity of transactions added to the blockchain ledger without the need for a trusted third party The first timestamping scheme invented was the proof of work scheme The most widely used proof of work schemes are based on SHA 256 and scrypt 22 Some other hashing algorithms that are used for proof of work include CryptoNote Blake SHA 3 and X11 Another method is called the proof of stake scheme Proof of stake is a method of securing a cryptocurrency network and achieving distributed consensus through requesting users to show ownership of a certain amount of currency It is different from proof of work systems that run difficult hashing algorithms to validate electronic transactions The scheme is largely dependent on the coin and there is currently no standard form of it Some cryptocurrencies use a combined proof of work and proof of stake scheme 22 Mining nbsp Hashcoin mineOn a blockchain mining is the validation of transactions For this effort successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network The rate of generating hashes which validate any transaction has been increased by the use of specialized machines such as FPGAs and ASICs running complex hashing algorithms like SHA 256 and scrypt 66 This arms race for cheaper yet efficient machines has existed since Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 66 Mining is measured by hash rate typically in TH s 67 With more people entering the world of virtual currency generating hashes for validation has become more complex over time forcing miners to invest increasingly large sums of money to improve computing performance Consequently the reward for finding a hash has diminished and often does not justify the investment in equipment and cooling facilities to mitigate the heat the equipment produces and the electricity required to run them 68 Popular regions for mining include those with inexpensive electricity a cold climate and jurisdictions with clear and conducive regulations By July 2019 Bitcoin s electricity consumption was estimated to be approximately 7 gigawatts around 0 2 of the global total or equivalent to the energy consumed nationally by Switzerland 69 Some miners pool resources sharing their processing power over a network to split the reward equally according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block A share is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof of work As of February 2018 update the Chinese Government has halted trading of virtual currency banned initial coin offerings and shut down mining Many Chinese miners have since relocated to Canada 70 and Texas 71 One company is operating data centers for mining operations at Canadian oil and gas field sites due to low gas prices 72 In June 2018 Hydro Quebec proposed to the provincial government to allocate 500 megawatts of power to crypto companies for mining 73 According to a February 2018 report from Fortune Iceland has become a haven for cryptocurrency miners in part because of its cheap electricity 74 In March 2018 the city of Plattsburgh New York put an 18 month moratorium on all cryptocurrency mining in an effort to preserve natural resources and the character and direction of the city 75 In 2021 Kazakhstan became the second biggest crypto currency mining country producing 18 1 of the global exahash rate The country built a compound containing 50 000 computers near Ekibastuz 76 GPU price rise An increase in cryptocurrency mining increased the demand for graphics cards GPU in 2017 77 The computing power of GPUs makes them well suited to generating hashes Popular favorites of cryptocurrency miners such as Nvidia s GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 graphics cards as well as AMD s RX 570 and RX 580 GPUs doubled or tripled in price or were out of stock 78 A GTX 1070 Ti which was released at a price of 450 sold for as much as 1 100 Another popular card the GTX 1060 6 GB model was released at an MSRP of 250 and sold for almost 500 RX 570 and RX 580 cards from AMD were out of stock for almost a year Miners regularly buy up the entire stock of new GPU s as soon as they are available 79 Nvidia has asked retailers to do what they can when it comes to selling GPUs to gamers instead of miners Boris Bohles PR manager for Nvidia in the German region said Gamers come first for Nvidia 80 Mining accelerator chips Numerous companies developed dedicated crypto mining accelerator chips capable of price performance far higher than that of CPU or GPU mining At one point Intel marketed its own brand of crypto accelerator chip named Blockscale 81 Wallets nbsp An example paper printable Bitcoin wallet consisting of one Bitcoin address for receiving and the corresponding private key for spendingMain article Cryptocurrency wallet A cryptocurrency wallet is a means of storing the public and private keys address or seed which can be used to receive or spend the cryptocurrency 82 With the private key it is possible to write in the public ledger effectively spending the associated cryptocurrency With the public key it is possible for others to send currency to the wallet There exist multiple methods of storing keys or seed in a wallet These methods range from using paper wallets which are public private or seed keys written on paper to using hardware wallets which are hardware to store your wallet information to a digital wallet which is a computer with a software hosting your wallet information to hosting your wallet using an exchange where cryptocurrency is traded or by storing your wallet information on a digital medium such as plaintext 83 Anonymity Main article Privacy and blockchain Bitcoin is pseudonymous rather than anonymous the cryptocurrency in a wallet is not tied to a person but rather to one or more specific keys or addresses 84 Thereby Bitcoin owners are not immediately identifiable but all transactions are publicly available in the blockchain 85 Still cryptocurrency exchanges are often required by law to collect the personal information of their users 86 Some cryptocurrencies such as Monero Zerocoin Zerocash and CryptoNote implement additional measures to increase privacy such as by using zero knowledge proofs 87 88 A recent 2020 study presented different attacks on privacy in cryptocurrencies The attacks demonstrated how the anonymity techniques are not sufficient safeguards In order to improve privacy researchers suggested several different ideas including new cryptographic schemes and mechanisms for hiding the IP address of the source 89 EconomicsSee also Cryptoeconomics Cryptocurrencies are used primarily outside banking and governmental institutions and are exchanged over the Internet Block rewards Proof of work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin offer block rewards incentives for miners There has been an implicit belief that whether miners are paid by block rewards or transaction fees does not affect the security of the blockchain but a study suggests that this may not be the case under certain circumstances 90 The rewards paid to miners increase the supply of the cryptocurrency By making sure that verifying transactions is a costly business the integrity of the network can be preserved as long as benevolent nodes control a majority of computing power The verification algorithm requires a lot of processing power and thus electricity in order to make verification costly enough to accurately validate public blockchain Not only do miners have to factor in the costs associated with expensive equipment necessary to stand a chance of solving a hash problem they must further consider the significant amount of electrical power in search of the solution Generally the block rewards outweigh electricity and equipment costs but this may not always be the case 91 The current value not the long term value of the cryptocurrency supports the reward scheme to incentivize miners to engage in costly mining activities 92 In 2018 Bitcoin s design caused a 1 4 welfare loss compared to an efficient cash system while a cash system with 2 money growth has a minor 0 003 welfare cost The main source for this inefficiency is the large mining cost which is estimated to be US 360 million per year This translates into users being willing to accept a cash system with an inflation rate of 230 before being better off using Bitcoin as a means of payment However the efficiency of the Bitcoin system can be significantly improved by optimizing the rate of coin creation and minimizing transaction fees Another potential improvement is to eliminate inefficient mining activities by changing the consensus protocol altogether 93 Transaction fees Transaction fees for cryptocurrency depend mainly on the supply of network capacity at the time versus the demand from the currency holder for a faster transaction citation needed The currency holder can choose a specific transaction fee while network entities process transactions in order of highest offered fee to lowest citation needed Cryptocurrency exchanges can simplify the process for currency holders by offering priority alternatives and thereby determine which fee will likely cause the transaction to be processed in the requested time citation needed For Ethereum transaction fees differ by computational complexity bandwidth use and storage needs while Bitcoin transaction fees differ by transaction size and whether the transaction uses SegWit In February 2023 the median transaction fee for Ether corresponded to 2 2845 94 while for Bitcoin it corresponded to 0 659 95 Some cryptocurrencies have no transaction fees and instead rely on client side proof of work as the transaction prioritization and anti spam mechanism 96 97 98 Exchanges Main article Cryptocurrency exchange Cryptocurrency exchanges allow customers to trade cryptocurrencies 99 for other assets such as conventional fiat money or to trade between different digital currencies Crypto marketplaces do not guarantee that an investor is completing a purchase or trade at the optimal price As a result as of 2020 it was possible to arbitrage to find the difference in price across several markets 100 Atomic swaps Atomic swaps are a mechanism where one cryptocurrency can be exchanged directly for another cryptocurrency without the need for a trusted third party such as an exchange 101 ATMs nbsp Bitcoin ATMJordan Kelley founder of Robocoin launched the first Bitcoin ATM in the United States on 20 February 2014 The kiosk installed in Austin Texas is similar to bank ATMs but has scanners to read government issued identification such as a driver s license or a passport to confirm users identities 102 Initial coin offerings An initial coin offering ICO is a controversial means of raising funds for a new cryptocurrency venture An ICO may be used by startups with the intention of avoiding regulation However securities regulators in many jurisdictions including in the U S and Canada have indicated that if a coin or token is an investment contract e g under the Howey test i e an investment of money with a reasonable expectation of profit based significantly on the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others it is a security and is subject to securities regulation In an ICO campaign a percentage of the cryptocurrency usually in the form of tokens is sold to early backers of the project in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies often Bitcoin or Ether 103 104 105 According to PricewaterhouseCoopers four of the 10 biggest proposed initial coin offerings have used Switzerland as a base where they are frequently registered as non profit foundations The Swiss regulatory agency FINMA stated that it would take a balanced approach to ICO projects and would allow legitimate innovators to navigate the regulatory landscape and so launch their projects in a way consistent with national laws protecting investors and the integrity of the financial system In response to numerous requests by industry representatives a legislative ICO working group began to issue legal guidelines in 2018 which are intended to remove uncertainty from cryptocurrency offerings and to establish sustainable business practices 106 Price trends The market capitalization of a cryptocurrency is calculated by multiplying the price by the number of coins in circulation The total cryptocurrency market cap has historically been dominated by Bitcoin accounting for at least 50 of the market cap value where altcoins have increased and decreased in market cap value in relation to Bitcoin Bitcoin s value is largely determined by speculation among other technological limiting factors known as blockchain rewards coded into the architecture technology of Bitcoin itself The cryptocurrency market cap follows a trend known as the halving which is when the block rewards received from Bitcoin are halved due to technological mandated limited factors instilled into Bitcoin which in turn limits the supply of Bitcoin As the date reaches near of a halving twice thus far historically the cryptocurrency market cap increases followed by a downtrend 107 By June 2021 cryptocurrency had begun to be offered by some wealth managers in the US for 401 k s 108 109 110 Volatility Cryptocurrency prices are much more volatile than established financial assets such as stocks For example over one week in May 2022 Bitcoin lost 20 of its value and Ethereum lost 26 while Solana and Cardano lost 41 and 35 respectively The falls were attributed to warnings about inflation By comparison in the same week the Nasdaq tech stock index fell 7 6 per cent and the FTSE 100 was 3 6 per cent down 111 In the longer term of the 10 leading cryptocurrencies identified by the total value of coins in circulation in January 2018 only four Bitcoin Ethereum Cardano and Ripple XRP were still in that position in early 2022 112 The total value of all cryptocurrencies was 2 trillion at the end of 2021 but had halved nine months later 113 114 The Wall Street Journal has commented that the crypto sector has become intertwined with the rest of the capital markets and sensitive to the same forces that drive tech stocks and other risk assets such as inflation forecasts 115 Databases There are also centralized databases outside of blockchains that store crypto market data Compared to the blockchain databases perform fast as there is no verification process Four of the most popular cryptocurrency market databases are CoinMarketCap CoinGecko BraveNewCoin and Cryptocompare 116 Social and political aspectsSee also Crypto anarchism and Cypherpunk According to Alan Feuer of The New York Times libertarians and anarcho capitalists were attracted to the philosophical idea behind Bitcoin Early Bitcoin supporter Roger Ver said At first almost everyone who got involved did so for philosophical reasons We saw Bitcoin as a great idea as a way to separate money from the state 117 Economist Paul Krugman argues that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are something of a cult based in paranoid fantasies of government power 118 David Golumbia says that the ideas influencing Bitcoin advocates emerge from right wing extremist movements such as the Liberty Lobby and the John Birch Society and their anti Central Bank rhetoric or more recently Ron Paul and Tea Party style libertarianism 119 Steve Bannon who owns a good stake in Bitcoin sees cryptocurrency as a form of disruptive populism taking control back from central authorities 120 Bitcoin s founder Satoshi Nakamoto has supported the idea that cryptocurrencies go well with libertarianism It s very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly Nakamoto said in 2008 121 According to the European Central Bank the decentralization of money offered by Bitcoin has its theoretical roots in the Austrian school of economics especially with Friedrich von Hayek in his book Denationalisation of Money The Argument Refined 122 in which Hayek advocates a complete free market in the production distribution and management of money to end the monopoly of central banks 123 Increasing regulationThe rise in the popularity of cryptocurrencies and their adoption by financial institutions has led some governments to assess whether regulation is needed to protect users The Financial Action Task Force FATF has defined cryptocurrency related services as virtual asset service providers VASPs and recommended that they be regulated with the same money laundering AML and know your customer KYC requirements as financial institutions 124 In May 2020 the Joint Working Group on interVASP Messaging Standards published IVMS 101 a universal common language for communication of required originator and beneficiary information between VASPs The FATF and financial regulators were informed as the data model was developed 125 In June 2020 FATF updated its guidance to include the Travel Rule for cryptocurrencies a measure which mandates that VASPs obtain hold and exchange information about the originators and beneficiaries of virtual asset transfers 126 Subsequent standardized protocol specifications recommended using JSON for relaying data between VASPs and identity services As of December 2020 the IVMS 101 data model has yet to be finalized and ratified by the three global standard setting bodies that created it 127 The European Commission published a digital finance strategy in September 2020 This included a draft regulation on Markets in Crypto Assets MiCA which aimed to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the EU 128 129 On 10 June 2021 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision proposed that banks that held cryptocurrency assets must set aside capital to cover all potential losses For instance if a bank were to hold Bitcoin worth 2 billion it would be required to set aside enough capital to cover the entire 2 billion This is a more extreme standard than banks are usually held to when it comes to other assets However this is a proposal and not a regulation The IMF is seeking a coordinated consistent and comprehensive approach to supervising cryptocurrencies Tobias Adrian the IMF s financial counsellor and head of its monetary and capital markets department said in a January 2022 interview that Agreeing global regulations is never quick But if we start now we can achieve the goal of maintaining financial stability while also enjoying the benefits which the underlying technological innovations bring 130 China In September 2017 China banned ICOs to cause abnormal return from cryptocurrency decreasing during announcement window The liquidity changes by banning ICOs in China was temporarily negative while the liquidity effect became positive after news 131 On 18 May 2021 China banned financial institutions and payment companies from being able to provide cryptocurrency transaction related services 132 This led to a sharp fall in the price of the biggest proof of work cryptocurrencies For instance Bitcoin fell 31 Ethereum fell 44 Binance Coin fell 32 and Dogecoin fell 30 133 Proof of work mining was the next focus with regulators in popular mining regions citing the use of electricity generated from highly polluting sources such as coal to create Bitcoin and Ethereum 134 In September 2021 the Chinese government declared all cryptocurrency transactions of any kind illegal completing its crackdown on cryptocurrency 30 El Salvador On 9 June 2021 El Salvador announced that it will adopt Bitcoin as legal tender becoming the first country to do so 135 India At present India neither prohibits nor allows investment in the cryptocurrency market In 2020 the Supreme Court of India had lifted the ban on cryptocurrency which was imposed by the Reserve Bank of India 136 137 138 139 Since then an investment in cryptocurrency is considered legitimate though there is still ambiguity about the issues regarding the extent and payment of tax on the income accrued thereupon and also its regulatory regime But it is being contemplated that the Indian Parliament will soon pass a specific law to either ban or regulate the cryptocurrency market in India 140 Expressing his public policy opinion on the Indian cryptocurrency market to a well known online publication a leading public policy lawyer and Vice President of SAARCLAW South Asian Association for Regional Co operation in Law Hemant Batra has said that the cryptocurrency market has now become very big with involvement of billions of dollars in the market hence it is now unattainable and irreconcilable for the government to completely ban all sorts of cryptocurrency and its trading and investment 141 He mooted regulating the cryptocurrency market rather than completely banning it He favoured following IMF and FATF guidelines in this regard South Africa South Africa which has seen a large number of scams related to cryptocurrency is said to be putting a regulatory timeline in place that will produce a regulatory framework 142 The largest scam occurred in April 2021 where the two founders of an African based cryptocurrency exchange called Africrypt Raees Cajee and Ameer Cajee disappeared with 3 8 billion worth of Bitcoin 143 Additionally Mirror Trading International disappeared with 170 million worth of cryptocurrency in January 2021 143 South Korea In March 2021 South Korea implemented new legislation to strengthen their oversight of digital assets This legislation requires all digital asset managers providers and exchanges to be registered with the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit in order to operate in South Korea 144 Registering with this unit requires that all exchanges are certified by the Information Security Management System and that they ensure all customers have real name bank accounts It also requires that the CEO and board members of the exchanges have not been convicted of any crimes and that the exchange holds sufficient levels of deposit insurance to cover losses arising from hacks 144 Switzerland Switzerland was one of the first countries to implement the FATF s Travel Rule FINMA the Swiss regulator issued its own guidance to VASPs in 2019 The guidance followed the FATF s Recommendation 16 however with stricter requirements According to FINMA s 145 requirements VASPs need to verify the identity of the beneficiary of the transfer Turkey On 30 April 2021 the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey banned the use of cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets for making purchases on the grounds that the use of cryptocurrencies for such payments poses significant transaction risks 146 United Kingdom In the United Kingdom as of 10 January 2021 all cryptocurrency firms such as exchanges advisors and professionals that have either a presence market product or provide services within the UK market must register with the Financial Conduct Authority Additionally on 27 June 2021 the financial watchdog demanded that Binance the world s largest cryptocurrency exchange 147 cease all regulated activities in the UK 148 United States In 2021 17 states passed laws and resolutions concerning cryptocurrency regulation 149 The U S Securities and Exchange Commission SEC is considering what steps to take On 8 July 2021 Senator Elizabeth Warren part of the Senate Banking Committee wrote to the chairman of the SEC and demanded answers on cryptocurrency regulation due to the increase in cryptocurrency exchange use and the danger this posed to consumers On 5 August 2021 SEC Chairman Gary Gensler responded to Senator Elizabeth Warren s letter regarding cryptocurrency regulation and called for legislation focused on crypto trading lending and DeFi platforms because of how vulnerable the investors could be when they traded on crypto trading platforms without a broker He also argued that many tokens in the crypto market may be unregistered securities without required disclosures or market oversight Additionally Gensler did not hold back in his criticism of stablecoins These tokens which are pegged to the value of fiat currencies may allow individuals to bypass important public policy goals related to traditional banking and financial systems such as anti money laundering tax compliance and sanctions 150 On 19 October 2021 the first bitcoin linked exchange traded fund ETF from ProShares started trading on the NYSE under the ticker BITO ProShares CEO Michael L Sapir said the ETF would expose Bitcoin to a wider range of investors without the hassle of setting up accounts with cryptocurrency providers Ian Balina the CEO of Token Metrics stated that the approval of the BITO ETF by the SEC was a significant endorsement for the crypto industry because many regulators globally were not in favor of crypto as well as the hesitance to accept crypto from retail investors This event would eventually open more opportunities for new capital and new people in this space 151 The United States Department of the Treasury on 20 May 2021 announced that it would require any transfer worth 10 000 or more to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service since cryptocurrency already posed a problem where illegal activity like tax evasion was facilitated broadly This release from the IRS was a part of efforts to promote better compliance and consider more severe penalties for tax evaders 152 On 17 February 2022 the Justice department named Eun Young Choi as the first director of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to aid in identification of and dealing with misuse of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets 153 The Biden administration faced a dilemma as it tried to develop regulations for the cryptocurrency industry On one hand officials were hesitant to restrict the growing and profitable industry On the other hand they were committed to preventing illegal cryptocurrency transactions To reconcile these conflicting goals on 9 March 2022 President Biden issued an executive order 154 Followed by the executive order on 16 September 2022 the Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets document was released 155 to support development of cryptocurrencies and restrict their illegal use The executive order included all digital assets but cryptocurrencies posed both the greatest security risks and potential economic benefits Though this might not address all of the challenges in crypto industry it was a significant milestone in the U S cryptocurrency regulation history 156 In February 2023 the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC ruled that cryptocurrency exchange Kraken s estimated 42 billion in staked assets globally operated as an illegal securities seller The company agreed to a 30 million settlement with the SEC and to cease selling its staking service in the U S The case would impact other major crypto exchanges operating staking programs 157 On 23 March 2023 the U S Securities and Exchange Commission SEC issued an alert to investors stating that firms offering crypto asset securities may not be complying with U S laws The SEC stated that unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities may not include important information 158 LegalityMain article Legality of cryptocurrency by country or territory The legal status of cryptocurrencies varies substantially from country to country and is still undefined or changing in many of them At least one study has shown that broad generalizations about the use of Bitcoin in illicit finance are significantly overstated and that blockchain analysis is an effective crime fighting and intelligence gathering tool 159 While some countries have explicitly allowed their use and trade 160 others have banned or restricted it According to the Library of Congress in 2021 an absolute ban on trading or using cryptocurrencies applies in 9 countries Algeria Bangladesh Bolivia China Egypt Iraq Morocco Nepal and the United Arab Emirates An implicit ban applies in another 39 countries or regions which include Bahrain Benin Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Chad Cote d Ivoire the Dominican Republic Ecuador Gabon Georgia Guyana Indonesia Iran Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Lebanon Lesotho Macau Maldives Mali Moldova Namibia Niger Nigeria Oman Pakistan Palau Republic of Congo Saudi Arabia Sengeal Tajikistan Tanzania Togo Turkey Turkmenistan Qatar and Vietnam 161 In the United States and Canada state and provincial securities regulators coordinated through the North American Securities Administrators Association are investigating Bitcoin scams and ICOs in 40 jurisdictions 162 Various government agencies departments and courts have classified Bitcoin differently China Central Bank banned the handling of Bitcoins by financial institutions in China in early 2014 In Russia though owning cryptocurrency is legal its residents are only allowed to purchase goods from other residents using the Russian ruble while nonresidents are allowed to use foreign currency 163 Regulations and bans that apply to Bitcoin probably extend to similar cryptocurrency systems 164 In August 2018 the Bank of Thailand announced its plans to create its own cryptocurrency the Central Bank Digital Currency CBDC 165 Advertising bans Cryptocurrency advertisements have been banned on the following platforms Google 166 Ended August 2021 167 Twitter 166 Facebook 166 Ended December 2021 168 Bing 169 Ended June 2022 170 Snapchat LinkedIn 171 MailChimp 172 Baidu Tencent Weibo Line Yandex 171 U S tax status On 25 March 2014 the United States Internal Revenue Service IRS ruled that Bitcoin will be treated as property for tax purposes Therefore virtual currencies are considered commodities subject to capital gains tax 173 Legal concerns relating to an unregulated global economy As the popularity and demand for online currencies has increased since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009 174 so have concerns that such an unregulated person to person global economy that cryptocurrencies offer may become a threat to society Concerns abound that altcoins may become tools for anonymous web criminals 175 Cryptocurrency networks display a lack of regulation that has been criticized as enabling criminals who seek to evade taxes and launder money Money laundering issues are also present in regular bank transfers however with bank to bank wire transfers for instance the account holder must at least provide a proven identity Transactions that occur through the use and exchange of these altcoins are independent from formal banking systems and therefore can make tax evasion simpler for individuals Since charting taxable income is based upon what a recipient reports to the revenue service it becomes extremely difficult to account for transactions made using existing cryptocurrencies a mode of exchange that is complex and difficult to track 175 Systems of anonymity that most cryptocurrencies offer can also serve as a simpler means to launder money Rather than laundering money through an intricate net of financial actors and offshore bank accounts laundering money through altcoins can be achieved through anonymous transactions 175 Cryptocurrency makes legal enforcement against extremist groups more complicated which consequently strengthens them 176 White supremacist Richard Spencer went as far as to declare Bitcoin the currency of the alt right 177 Loss theft and fraud Main article Cryptocurrency and crime In February 2014 the world s largest Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox declared bankruptcy Likely due to theft the company claimed that it had lost nearly 750 000 Bitcoins belonging to their clients This added up to approximately 7 of all Bitcoins in existence worth a total of 473 million Mt Gox blamed hackers who had exploited the transaction malleability problems in the network The price of a Bitcoin fell from a high of about 1 160 in December to under 400 in February 178 On 21 November 2017 Tether announced that it had been hacked losing 31 million in USDT from its core treasury wallet 179 On 7 December 2017 Slovenian cryptocurrency exchange Nicehash reported that hackers had stolen over 70M using a hijacked company computer 180 On 19 December 2017 Yapian the owner of South Korean exchange Youbit filed for bankruptcy after suffering two hacks that year 181 182 Customers were still granted access to 75 of their assets In May 2018 Bitcoin Gold had its transactions hijacked and abused by unknown hackers 183 Exchanges lost an estimated 18m and Bitcoin Gold was delisted from Bittrex after it refused to pay its share of the damages On 13 September 2018 Homero Josh Garza was sentenced to 21 months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release 184 Garza had founded the cryptocurrency startups GAW Miners and ZenMiner in 2014 acknowledged in a plea agreement that the companies were part of a pyramid scheme and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2015 The U S Securities and Exchange Commission separately brought a civil enforcement action against Garza who was eventually ordered to pay a judgment of 9 1 million plus 700 000 in interest The SEC s complaint stated that Garza through his companies had fraudulently sold investment contracts representing shares in the profits they claimed would be generated from mining 185 In January 2018 Japanese exchange Coincheck reported that hackers had stolen 530M worth of cryptocurrencies 186 In June 2018 South Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked losing over 37M worth of cryptos 187 The hack worsened an already ongoing cryptocurrency selloff by an additional 42 billion 188 On 9 July 2018 the exchange Bancor whose code and fundraising had been subjects of controversy had 23 5 million in cryptocurrency stolen 189 A 2020 EU report found that users had lost crypto assets worth hundreds of millions of US dollars in security breaches at exchanges and storage providers Between 2011 and 2019 reported breaches ranged from four to twelve a year In 2019 more than a billion dollars worth of cryptoassets was reported stolen Stolen assets typically find their way to illegal markets and are used to fund further criminal activity 190 According to a 2020 report produced by the United States Attorney General s Cyber Digital Task Force the following three categories make up the majority of illicit cryptocurrency uses 1 financial transactions associated with the commission of crimes 2 money laundering and the shielding of legitimate activity from tax reporting or other legal requirements or 3 crimes such as theft directly implicating the cryptocurrency marketplace itself The report concludes that for cryptocurrency to realize its truly transformative potential it is imperative that these risks be addressed and that the government has legal and regulatory tools available at its disposal to confront the threats posed by cryptocurrency s illicit uses 191 192 According to the UK 2020 national risk assessment a comprehensive assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risk in the UK the risk of using cryptoassets such as Bitcoin for money laundering and terrorism financing is assessed as medium from low in the previous 2017 report 193 Legal scholars suggested that the money laundering opportunities may be more perceived than real 194 Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis concluded that illicit activities like cybercrime money laundering and terrorism financing made up only 0 15 of all crypto transactions conducted in 2021 representing a total of 14 billion 195 196 197 In December 2021 Monkey Kingdom a NFT project based in Hong Kong lost US 1 3 million worth of cryptocurrencies via a phishing link used by the hacker 198 Money laundering See also Cryptocurrency and crime According to blockchain data company Chainalysis criminals laundered US 8 600 000 000 worth of cryptocurrency in 2021 up by 30 from the previous year 199 The data suggests that rather than managing numerous illicit havens cybercriminals make use of a small group of purpose built centralized exchanges for sending and receiving illicit cryptocurrency In 2021 those exchanges received 47 of funds sent by crime linked addresses 200 Almost 2 2bn worth of cryptocurrencies was embezzled from DeFi protocols in 2021 which represents 72 of all cryptocurrency theft in 2021 According to Bloomberg and the New York Times Federation Tower a two skyscraper complex in the heart of Moscow City is home to many cryptocurrency businesses under suspicion of facilitating extensive money laundering including accepting illicit cryptocurrency funds obtained through scams darknet markets and ransomware 201 Notable businesses include Garantex 202 Eggchange Cashbank Buy Bitcoin Tetchange Bitzlato and Suex which was sanctioned by the U S in 2021 Bitzlato founder and owner Anatoly Legkodymov was arrested following money laundering charges by the United States Department of Justice 203 Dark money has also been flowing into Russia through a dark web marketplace called Hydra which is powered by cryptocurrency and enjoyed more than 1 billion in sales in 2020 according to Chainalysis 204 The platform demands that sellers liquidate cryptocurrency only through certain regional exchanges which has made it difficult for investigators to trace the money Almost 74 of ransomware revenue in 2021 over 400 million worth of cryptocurrency went to software strains likely affiliated with Russia where oversight is notoriously limited 201 However Russians are also leaders in the benign adoption of cryptocurrencies as the ruble is unreliable and President Putin favours the idea of overcoming the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies 205 In 2022 RenBridge an unregulated alternative to exchanges for transferring value between blockchains was found to be responsible for the laundering of at least 540 million since 2020 It is especially popular with people attempting to launder money from theft This includes a cyberattack on Japanese crypto exchange Liquid that has been linked to North Korea 206 Darknet markets Main article Darknet market Properties of cryptocurrencies gave them popularity in applications such as a safe haven in banking crises and means of payment which also led to the cryptocurrency use in controversial settings in the form of online black markets such as Silk Road 175 The original Silk Road was shut down in October 2013 and there have been two more versions in use since then In the year following the initial shutdown of Silk Road the number of prominent dark markets increased from four to twelve while the amount of drug listings increased from 18 000 to 32 000 175 Darknet markets present challenges in regard to legality Cryptocurrency used in dark markets are not clearly or legally classified in almost all parts of the world In the U S Bitcoins are labelled as virtual assets citation needed This type of ambiguous classification puts pressure on law enforcement agencies around the world to adapt to the shifting drug trade of dark markets 207 unreliable source Wash trades Various studies have found that crypto trading is rife with wash trading Wash trading is a process illegal in some jurisdictions involving buyers and sellers being the same person or group and may be used to manipulate the price of a cryptocurrency or inflate volume artificially Exchanges with higher volumes can demand higher premiums from token issuers 208 A study from 2019 concluded that up to 80 of trades on unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges could be wash trades 208 A 2019 report by Bitwise Asset Management claimed that 95 of all Bitcoin trading volume reported on major website CoinMarketCap had been artificially generated and of 81 exchanges studied only 10 provided legitimate volume figures 209 As a tool to evade sanctions In 2022 cryptocurrencies attracted attention when Western nations imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine in February However American sources warned in March that some crypto transactions could potentially be used to evade economic sanctions against Russia and Belarus 210 In April 2022 the computer programmer Virgil Griffith received a five year prison sentence in the US for attending a Pyongyang cryptocurrency conference where he gave a presentation on blockchains which might be used for sanctions evasion 211 Impacts and analysisExternal videos nbsp Cryptocurrencies looking beyond the hype Hyun Song Shin Bank for International Settlements 2 48 212 The Bank for International Settlements summarized several criticisms of cryptocurrencies in Chapter V of their 2018 annual report The criticisms include the lack of stability in their price the high energy consumption high and variable transactions costs the poor security and fraud at cryptocurrency exchanges vulnerability to debasement from forking and the influence of miners 212 213 214 Speculation fraud and adoption See also Cryptocurrency bubble Cryptocurrency and crime and Criminal activity on Bitcoin s network Cryptocurrencies have been compared to Ponzi schemes pyramid schemes 215 and economic bubbles 216 such as housing market bubbles 217 Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management stated in 2017 that digital currencies were nothing but an unfounded fad or perhaps even a pyramid scheme based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it and compared them to the tulip mania 1637 South Sea Bubble 1720 and dot com bubble 1999 which all experienced profound price booms and busts 218 Regulators in several countries have warned against cryptocurrency and some have taken measures to dissuade users 219 However research in 2021 by the UK s financial regulator suggests such warnings either went unheard or were ignored Fewer than one in 10 potential cryptocurrency buyers were aware of consumer warnings on the FCA website and 12 of crypto users were not aware that their holdings were not protected by statutory compensation 220 221 Of 1 000 respondents between the ages of eighteen and forty almost 70 wrongly assumed cryptocurrencies were regulated 75 of younger crypto investors claimed to be driven by competition with friends and family 58 said that social media enticed them to make high risk investments 222 The FCA recommends making use of its warning list which flags unauthorized financial firms 223 Many banks do not offer virtual currency services themselves and can refuse to do business with virtual currency companies 224 In 2014 Gareth Murphy a senior banking officer suggested that the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies may lead to too much money being obfuscated blinding economists who would use such information to better steer the economy 225 While traditional financial products have strong consumer protections in place there is no intermediary with the power to limit consumer losses if Bitcoins are lost or stolen One of the features cryptocurrency lacks in comparison to credit cards for example is consumer protection against fraud such as chargebacks The French regulator Autorite des marches financiers AMF lists 16 websites of companies that solicit investment in cryptocurrency without being authorized to do so in France 226 An October 2021 paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Bitcoin suffers from systemic risk as the top 10 000 addresses control about one third of all Bitcoin in circulation 227 It is even worse for Bitcoin miners with 0 01 controlling 50 of the capacity According to researcher Flipside Crypto less than 2 of anonymous accounts control 95 of all available Bitcoin supply 228 This is considered risky as a great deal of the market is in the hands of a few entities A paper by John Griffin a finance professor at the University of Texas and Amin Shams a graduate student found that in 2017 the price of Bitcoin had been substantially inflated using another cryptocurrency Tether 229 Roger Lowenstein author of Bank of America The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve says in a New York Times story that FTX will face over 8 billion in claims 230 Non fungible tokens Non fungible tokens NFTs are digital assets that represent art collectibles gaming etc Like crypto their data is stored on the blockchain NFTs are bought and traded using cryptocurrency The Ethereum blockchain was the first place where NFTs were implemented but now many other blockchains have created their own versions of NFTs Banks As the first big Wall Street bank to embrace cryptocurrencies Morgan Stanley announced on 17 March 2021 that they will be offering access to Bitcoin funds for their wealthy clients through three funds which enable Bitcoin ownership for investors with an aggressive risk tolerance 231 BNY Mellon on 11 February 2021 announced that it would begin offering cryptocurrency services to its clients 232 On 20 April 2021 233 Venmo added support to its platform to enable customers to buy hold and sell cryptocurrencies 234 In October 2021 financial services company Mastercard announced it is working with digital asset manager Bakkt on a platform that would allow any bank or merchant on the Mastercard network to offer cryptocurrency services 235 Environmental effects See also Environmental effects of bitcoin Mining for proof of work cryptocurrencies requires enormous amounts of electricity and consequently comes with a large carbon footprint due to causing greenhouse gas emissions 236 Proof of work blockchains such as Bitcoin Ethereum Litecoin and Monero were estimated to have added between 3 million and 15 million tons of carbon dioxide CO2 to the atmosphere in the period from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2017 237 By November 2018 Bitcoin was estimated to have an annual energy consumption of 45 8TWh generating 22 0 to 22 9 million tons of CO2 rivalling nations like Jordan and Sri Lanka 238 By the end of 2021 Bitcoin was estimated to produce 65 4 million tons of CO2 as much as Greece 239 and consume between 91 and 177 terawatt hours annually 240 241 Critics have also identified a large electronic waste problem in disposing of mining rigs 242 Mining hardware is improving at a fast rate quickly resulting in older generations of hardware 243 Bitcoin is the least energy efficient cryptocurrency using 707 6 kilowatt hours of electricity per transaction 244 Before June 2021 China was the primary location for Bitcoin mining However due to concerns over power usage and other factors China forced out Bitcoin operations at least temporarily As a result the United States promptly emerged as the top global leader in the industry An example of a gross amount of electronic waste associated with Bitcoin mining operations in the US is a facility that located in Dalton Georgia which is consuming nearly the same amount of electricity as the combined power usage of 97 000 households in its vicinity Another example is that Riot Platforms operates a Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale Texas which consumes approximately as much electricity as the nearby 300 000 households This makes it the most energy intensive Bitcoin mining operation in the United States 245 The world s second largest cryptocurrency Ethereum uses 62 56 kilowatt hours of electricity per transaction 246 XRP is the world s most energy efficient cryptocurrency using 0 0079 kilowatt hours of electricity per transaction 247 Although the biggest PoW blockchains consume energy on the scale of medium sized countries the annual power demand from proof of stake PoS blockchains is on a scale equivalent to a housing estate The Times identified six environmentally friendly cryptocurrencies Chia IOTA Cardano Nano Solarcoin and Bitgreen 248 Academics and researchers have used various methods for estimating the energy use and energy efficiency of blockchains A study of the six largest proof of stake networks in May 2021 concluded Cardano has the lowest electricity use per node Polkadot has the lowest electricity use overall and Solana has the lowest electricity use per transaction In terms of annual consumption kWh yr the figures were Polkadot 70 237 Tezos 113 249 Avalanche 489 311 Algorand 512 671 Cardano 598 755 and Solana 1 967 930 This equates to Polkadot consuming 7 times the electricity of an average U S home Cardano 57 homes and Solana 200 times as much The research concluded that PoS networks consumed 0 001 the electricity of the Bitcoin network 249 University College London researchers reached a similar conclusion 250 Variable renewable energy power stations could invest in Bitcoin mining to reduce curtailment hedge electricity price risk stabilize the grid increase the profitability of renewable energy power stations and therefore accelerate transition to sustainable energy 251 252 253 254 255 Technological limitations There are also purely technical elements to consider For example technological advancement in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin result in high up front costs to miners in the form of specialized hardware and software 256 Cryptocurrency transactions are normally irreversible after a number of blocks confirm the transaction Additionally cryptocurrency private keys can be permanently lost from local storage due to malware data loss or the destruction of the physical media This precludes the cryptocurrency from being spent resulting in its effective removal from the markets 257 Academic studies Main article Ledger journal In September 2015 the establishment of the peer reviewed academic journal Ledger ISSN 2379 5980 was announced It covers studies of cryptocurrencies and related technologies and is published by the University of Pittsburgh 258 The journal encourages authors to digitally sign a file hash of submitted papers which will then be timestamped into the Bitcoin blockchain Authors are also asked to include a personal Bitcoin address in the first page of their papers 259 260 Aid agencies A number of aid agencies have started accepting donations in cryptocurrencies including UNICEF 261 Christopher Fabian principal adviser at UNICEF Innovation said the children s fund would uphold donor protocols meaning that people making donations online would have to pass checks before they were allowed to deposit funds 262 263 However in 2021 there was a backlash against donations in Bitcoin because of the environmental emissions it caused Some agencies stopped accepting Bitcoin and others turned to greener cryptocurrencies 264 The U S arm of Greenpeace stopped accepting bitcoin donations after seven years It said As the amount of energy needed to run Bitcoin became clearer this policy became no longer tenable 265 In 2022 the Ukrainian government raised over US 10 000 000 worth of aid through cryptocurrency following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine 266 Criticism Bitcoin has been characterized as a speculative bubble by eight winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Paul Krugman 267 Robert J Shiller 268 Joseph Stiglitz 269 Richard Thaler 270 James Heckman 271 Thomas Sargent 271 Angus Deaton 271 and Oliver Hart 271 and by central bank officials including Alan Greenspan 272 Agustin Carstens 273 Vitor Constancio 274 and Nout Wellink 275 Investors Warren Buffett and George Soros have respectively characterized it as a mirage 276 and a bubble 277 while business executives Jack Ma and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have called it a bubble 278 and a fraud 279 respectively although Jamie Dimon later said he regretted dubbing Bitcoin a fraud 280 BlackRock CEO Laurence D Fink called Bitcoin an index of money laundering 281 In June 2022 business magnate Bill Gates said that cryptocurrencies are 100 based on greater fool theory 282 Legal scholars criticize the lack of regulation which hinders conflict resolution when crypto assets are at the center of a legal dispute for example a divorce or an inheritance In Switzerland jurists generally deny that cryptocurrencies are objects that fall under property law as cryptocurrencies do not belong to any class of legally defined objects Typenzwang the legal numerus clausus Therefore it is debated whether anybody could even be sued for embezzlement of cryptocurrency if he she had access to someone s wallet However in the law of obligations and contract law any kind of object would be legally valid but the object would have to be tied to an identified counterparty However as the more popular cryptocurrencies can be freely and quickly exchanged into legal tender they are financial assets and have to be taxed and accounted for as such 283 284 In 2018 an increase in crypto related suicides was noticed after the cryptocurrency market crashed in August The situation was particularly critical in Korea as crypto traders were on suicide watch A cryptocurrency forum on Reddit even started providing suicide prevention support to affected investors 285 286 The May 2022 collapse of the Luna currency operated by Terra also led to reports of suicidal investors in crypto related subreddits 287 See also2018 crypto crash Blockchain based remittances company Cryptocurrency bubble Cryptocurrency exchange Cryptographic protocol List of cryptocurrencies Virtual currency law in the United StatesNotes Whether the word crypto refers to cryptocurrency is controversial see crypto naming controversy References Pagliery Jose 2014 Bitcoin And the Future of Money Triumph Books ISBN 978 1629370361 Archived from the original on 21 January 2018 Retrieved 20 January 2018 Milutinovic Monia 2018 Cryptocurrency Ekonomika 64 1 105 122 doi 10 5937 ekonomika1801105M ISSN 0350 137X Archived from the original on 16 April 2022 Retrieved 18 April 2022 a b Andy Greenberg 20 April 2011 Crypto Currency Forbes Archived from the original on 31 August 2014 Retrieved 8 August 2014 Polansek Tom 2 May 2016 CME ICE prepare pricing data that could boost bitcoin Reuters Archived from the original on 23 April 2022 Retrieved 3 May 2016 Pernice Ingolf G A Scott Brett 20 May 2021 Cryptocurrency Internet Policy Review 10 2 doi 10 14763 2021 2 1561 ISSN 2197 6775 Archived from the original on 23 October 2021 Retrieved 23 October 2021 Bitcoin not a currency says Japan government BBC News 7 March 2014 Archived from the original on 25 January 2022 Retrieved 25 January 2022 Is it a currency A commodity Bitcoin has an identity crisis Reuters 3 March 2020 Archived from the original on 25 January 2022 Retrieved 25 January 2022 Brown Aaron 7 November 2017 Are Cryptocurrencies an Asset Class Yes and No www bloomberg com Archived from the original on 1 April 2022 Retrieved 25 January 2022 Bezek Ian 14 July 2021 What Is Proof of Stake and Why Is Ethereum Adopting It Archived from the original on 5 August 2021 Retrieved 5 August 2021 Allison Ian 8 September 2015 If Banks Want Benefits of Blockchains They Must Go Permissionless International Business Times Archived from the original on 12 September 2015 Retrieved 15 September 2015 Matteo D Agnolo All you need to know about Bitcoin timesofindia economictimes Archived from the original on 26 October 2015 Cryptocurrencies What Are They Schwab Brokerage Archived from the original on 14 September 2023 Retrieved 14 September 2023 However as of June 2023 there were more than 25 000 digital currencies in the marketplace of which more than 40 had a market capitalization exceeding 1 billion Chaum David Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments PDF www hit bme hu Archived from the original PDF on 18 December 2014 Retrieved 26 October 2014 Chaum David Untraceable Electronic Cash PDF blog koehntopp de Archived PDF from the original on 3 September 2011 Retrieved 10 October 2012 Pitta Julie Requiem for a Bright Idea Forbes Archived from the original on 30 August 2017 Retrieved 11 January 2018 How To Make a Mint The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash groups csail mit edu Archived from the original on 26 October 2017 Retrieved 11 January 2018 Law Laurie Sabett Susan Solinas Jerry 11 January 1997 How to Make a Mint The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash The American University Law Review 46 4 Archived from the original on 12 January 2018 Retrieved 11 January 2018 Wei Dai 1998 B Money www weidai com Archived from the original on 5 November 2011 Peck Morgen E 30 May 2012 Bitcoin The Cryptoanarchists Answer to Cash IEEE Spectrum Around the same time Nick Szabo a computer scientist who now blogs about law and the history of money was one of the first to imagine a new digital currency from the ground up Although many consider his scheme which he calls bit gold to be a precursor to Bitcoin a b Jerry Brito and Andrea Castillo 2013 Bitcoin A Primer for Policymakers PDF Mercatus Center George Mason University Archived PDF from the original on 21 September 2013 Retrieved 22 October 2013 Niccolai James 19 May 2013 Bitcoin developer chats about regulation open source and the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto PCWorld Archived from the original on 3 October 2014 Retrieved 17 August 2022 a b c Steadman Ian 11 May 2013 Wary of Bitcoin A guide to some other cryptocurrencies Ars Technica Archived from the original on 16 January 2014 Retrieved 17 August 2022 Crypto winter has come And it s looking more like an ice age The Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Archived from the original on 29 December 2022 Retrieved 13 April 2023 What Is Crypto Winter Forbes Advisor Forbes Archived from the original on 13 April 2023 Retrieved 13 April 2023 UK launches initiative to explore potential of virtual currencies The UK News 7 August 2014 Archived from the original on 10 November 2014 Retrieved 8 August 2014 Cryptoassets Taskforce final report PDF assets publishing service gov uk HM Treasury October 2018 Archived PDF from the original on 23 September 2021 Retrieved 1 October 2021 UK regulatory approach to cryptoassets and stablecoins Consultation and call for evidence PDF HM Treasury Archived PDF from the original on 25 November 2022 Retrieved 1 October 2021 Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador first country ever Mercopress 10 June 2021 Archived from the original on 17 February 2023 Retrieved 11 June 2021 Sigalos MacKenzie 27 August 2021 Cuba s central bank now recognizes cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin CNBC Archived from the original on 17 February 2023 Retrieved 6 September 2021 a b China declares all crypto currency transactions illegal BBC News 24 September 2021 Archived from the original on 17 February 2023 Retrieved 24 September 2021 Ethereum Finishes Long Awaited Energy Saving Merge Upgrade Bloomberg News 15 September 2022 Osipovich Alexander 20 July 2017 Crypto Exchange FTX Valued at 18 Billion in Funding Round The Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Archived from the original on 18 November 2022 Retrieved 28 December 2022 Hill Jeremy 11 November 2022 FTX Goes Bankrupt in Stunning Reversal for Crypto Exchange Bloomberg News Archived from the original on 11 November 2022 Retrieved 28 December 2022 Khalili Joel 11 November 2022 The Fallout of the FTX Collapse Wired Retrieved 28 December 2022 Chatterjee Sumeet Davies Megan Aftab Ahmed McCrank John Nguyen Lananh Howcroft Elizabeth Azhar Saeed Sinclair Foley John 2 December 2022 After FTX collapse pressure builds for tougher crypto rules Reuters Archived from the original on 28 December 2022 Retrieved 28 December 2022 Wile Rob 28 December 2022 After FTX s spectacular collapse where does crypto go from here NBC News Archived from the original on 28 December 2022 Retrieved 28 December 2022 Lansky Jan January 2018 Possible State Approaches to Cryptocurrencies Journal of Systems Integration 9 1 19 31 doi 10 20470 jsi v9i1 335 Archived from the original on 12 February 2018 Retrieved 11 February 2018 The Dictionary Just Got a Whole Lot Bigger Merriam Webster March 2018 Archived from the original on 5 March 2018 Retrieved 5 March 2018 Yang Stephanie 31 January 2018 Want to Keep Up With Bitcoin Enthusiasts Learn the Lingo The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on 12 June 2018 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Katz Lily 24 May 2017 Cryptocurrency Mania Goes Beyond Bitcoin Bloomberg Archived from the original on 16 October 2020 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Browne Ryan 5 December 2017 Bitcoin is not a bubble but other cryptocurrencies are cannibalizing themselves fintech exec says CNBC Archived from the original on 28 October 2020 Retrieved 25 October 2020 a b Coll Aumatell Roger 7 July 2021 Analysis and Development of Blockchain Rollups Master s Thesis Barcelona Spain Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya Retrieved 17 March 2024 Kharif Olga 15 January 2018 These Digital Coins Soar or Fall With Bitcoin Bloomberg Archived from the original on 28 October 2020 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Hajric Vildana 21 October 2020 Bitcoin Surges to Highest Since July 2019 After PayPal Embrace Bloomberg Law Archived from the original on 29 October 2020 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Forget Bitcoin Inside the insane world of altcoin cryptocurrency trading CNET Archived from the original on 22 November 2021 Retrieved 22 November 2021 Vigna Paul 19 December 2017 Which Digital Currency Will Be the Next Bitcoin The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on 12 June 2018 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Steadman Ian 11 May 2013 Wary of Bitcoin A guide to some other cryptocurrencies Ars Technica Archived from the original on 16 January 2014 Retrieved 19 January 2014 Popper Nathaniel 1 October 2017 Understanding Ethereum Bitcoin s Virtual Cousin Published 2017 The New York Times Archived from the original on 10 February 2021 Retrieved 28 November 2020 Ethereum Upgrade Adds to Crypto Mania Sparked by Bitcoin s Surge Bloomberg com 25 November 2020 Archived from the original on 28 November 2020 Retrieved 28 November 2020 Popper Nathaniel 27 March 2016 Ethereum a Virtual Currency Enables Transactions That Rival Bitcoin s The New York Times Archived from the original on 24 July 2016 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Hajric Vildana 28 August 2019 Bitcoin s Surge Means Smaller Rivals May Be Due for Rallies Bloomberg Archived from the original on 31 October 2020 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Saad Amena 8 July 2020 TikTok Takes on Crypto With Dogecoin Soaring 40 in 24 Hours Bloomberg Archived from the original on 28 October 2020 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Stablecoin Investopedia Archived from the original on 25 September 2021 Retrieved 4 October 2021 Denton Jack How a Digital Token Designed to be Stable Fueled a Crypto Crash www barrons com Archived from the original on 12 May 2022 Retrieved 12 May 2022 Turmoil and panic in crypto market as stablecoin slump prompts wider collapse the Guardian 12 May 2022 Archived from the original on 12 May 2022 Retrieved 12 May 2022 South Korean founder of failed cryptocurrency Terra denies he is on the run the Guardian Agence France Presse 18 September 2022 Archived from the original on 19 September 2022 Retrieved 19 September 2022 South Korean prosecutors ask Interpol to issue red notice for Do Kwon Financial Times 19 September 2022 Archived from the original on 19 September 2022 Retrieved 19 September 2022 HKMA to Roll Out New Licensing Requirements and Regulations on Stablecoins in 2023 2024 Perspectives amp Events Mayer Brown www mayerbrown com Archived from the original on 5 February 2023 Retrieved 5 February 2023 a b Blockchains The great chain of being sure about things The Economist 31 October 2015 Archived from the original on 3 July 2016 Retrieved 18 June 2016 How Cryptocurrencies Could Upend Banks Monetary Role Archived 27 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine American Banker 26 May 2013 a b Narayanan Arvind Bonneau Joseph Felten Edward Miller Andrew Goldfeder Steven 2016 Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies a comprehensive introduction Princeton Princeton University Press ISBN 978 0 691 17169 2 Blockchain Investopedia Archived from the original on 23 March 2016 Retrieved 19 March 2016 Based on the Bitcoin protocol the blockchain database is shared by all nodes participating in a system Iansiti Marco Lakhani Karim R January 2017 The Truth About Blockchain Harvard Business Review Harvard University Archived from the original on 18 January 2017 Retrieved 17 January 2017 The technology at the heart of bitcoin and other virtual currencies blockchain is an open distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way Raval Siraj 2016 Decentralized Applications Harnessing Bitcoin s Blockchain Technology O Reilly Media Inc pp 1 2 ISBN 978 1 4919 2452 5 Park Sehyun Im Seongwon Seol Youhwan Paek Jeongyeup 2019 Nodes in the Bitcoin Network Comparative Measurement Study and Survey IEEE Access 7 57009 57022 Bibcode 2019IEEEA 757009P doi 10 1109 ACCESS 2019 2914098 S2CID 155106629 a b Bedford Taylor Michael 1 September 2017 The Evolution of Bitcoin Hardware Computer Kent Peter Bain Tyler 13 July 2022 Cryptocurrency Mining for Dummies John Wiley amp Sons ISBN 9781119885368 Hern Alex 17 January 2018 Bitcoin s energy usage is huge we can t afford to ignore it The Guardian Archived from the original on 23 January 2018 Retrieved 23 January 2018 Baraniuk Chris 3 July 2019 Bitcoin s global energy use equals Switzerland BBC News Archived from the original on 16 January 2020 Retrieved 2 February 2020 China s Crypto Crackdown Sends Miners Scurrying to Chilly Canada Bloomberg com Bloomberg L P 2 February 2018 Archived from the original on 4 March 2018 Retrieved 3 March 2018 Why China s bitcoin miners are moving to Texas BBC News 3 September 2021 Archived from the original on 4 September 2021 Retrieved 4 September 2021 Cryptocurrency mining operation launched by Iron Bridge Resources World Oil 26 January 2018 Archived from the original on 30 January 2018 Bitcoin and crypto currencies trending up today Crypto Currency Daily Roundup June 25 Market Exclusive marketexclusive com 25 June 2018 Archived from the original on 13 April 2020 Retrieved 27 June 2018 Iceland Expects to Use More Electricity Mining Bitcoin Than Powering Homes This Year Fortune Archived from the original on 20 April 2018 Retrieved 25 March 2018 Bitcoin Mining Banned for First Time in Upstate New York Town Bloomberg com Bloomberg L P 16 March 2018 Archived from the original on 20 March 2018 Retrieved 20 March 2018 Inside Kazakhstan s giant crypto mine BBC 31 January 2022 Archived from the original on 28 March 2022 Retrieved 28 March 2022 Bitcoin mania is hurting PC gamers by pushing up GPU prices 30 January 2018 Archived from the original on 2 February 2018 Retrieved 2 February 2018 Graphics card shortage leads retailers to take unusual measures Polygon 26 January 2018 Archived from the original on 2 February 2018 Retrieved 2 February 2018 AMD Nvidia must do more to stop cryptominers from causing PC gaming card shortages price gouging CNBC 22 January 2018 Archived from the original on 2 February 2018 Retrieved 2 February 2018 Nvidia suggests retailers put gamers over cryptocurrency miners in graphics card craze Polygon 23 January 2018 Archived from the original on 2 February 2018 Retrieved 2 February 2018 Cunningham Andrew 18 April 2023 Intel unceremoniously dumps its year old Blockscale chips for bitcoin mining Ars Technica Archived from the original on 19 April 2023 Retrieved 19 April 2023 Arnott Amy 2 August 2021 A Basic Glossary of Terms for Crypto Newbies Morningstar com Archived from the original on 2 August 2021 Retrieved 30 August 2021 Jokic Stevo Cvetkovic Aleksandar Adamovic Sasa Ristic Nenad Spalevic Petar 2019 Comparative analysis of cryptocurrency wallets vs traditional wallets Ekonomika 65 3 65 75 doi 10 5937 ekonomika1903065J S2CID 208267171 Lee Justina 13 September 2018 Mystery of the 2 Billion Bitcoin Whale That Fueled a Selloff Bloomberg com Archived from the original on 19 December 2018 Galston Ezra 16 June 2021 Untraceable Bitcoin Is a Myth The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on 20 September 2022 Retrieved 16 September 2022 Goodell Geoff Aste Tomaso 2019 Can Cryptocurrencies Preserve Privacy and Comply With Regulations Frontiers in Blockchain 2 4 arXiv 1811 12240 doi 10 3389 fbloc 2019 00004 ISSN 2624 7852 What You Need To Know About Zero Knowledge TechCrunch 7 February 2015 Archived from the original on 20 February 2019 Retrieved 19 December 2018 Greenberg Andy 25 January 2017 Monero the Drug Dealer s Cryptocurrency of Choice Is on Fire Wired ISSN 1059 1028 Archived from the original on 10 December 2018 Retrieved 19 December 2018 Herskind Lasse Katsikouli Panagiota Dragoni Nicola 2020 Privacy and Cryptocurrencies A Systematic Literature Review IEEE Access 8 54044 54059 Bibcode 2020IEEEA 854044H doi 10 1109 ACCESS 2020 2980950 ISSN 2169 3536 On the Instability of Bitcoin Without the Block Reward PDF Archived PDF from the original on 5 June 2020 Retrieved 5 May 2020 Price Fluctuations and the Use of Bitcoin An Empirical Inquiry PDF Archived PDF from the original on 31 October 2020 Retrieved 5 May 2020 Yaish Aviv Zohar Aviv 18 June 2020 Correct Cryptocurrency ASIC Pricing Are Miners Overpaying Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics LIPIcs Vol 282 pp 2 1 2 25 arXiv 2002 11064 doi 10 4230 LIPIcs AFT 2023 2 ISBN 9783959773034 S2CID 211296648 The Economics of Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Beyond PDF Archived PDF from the original on 10 December 2020 Retrieved 5 May 2020 Ethereum Median Transaction Fee historical chart BitInfoCharts Archived from the original on 14 April 2023 Retrieved 19 March 2023 Bitcoin Median Transaction Fee historical chart Archived from the original on 28 March 2023 Retrieved 19 March 2023 Scalability of the Bitcoin and Nano protocols a comparative analysis PDF Blekinge Institute of Technology 2018 archived PDF from the original on 19 December 2019 retrieved 18 December 2019 Pervez Huma Muneeb Muhammad Irfan Muhammad Usama Haq Irfan Ul 19 December 2018 A Comparative Analysis of DAG Based Blockchain Architectures 2018 12th International Conference on Open Source Systems and Technologies ICOSST IEEE pp 27 34 doi 10 1109 ICOSST 2018 8632193 ISBN 978 1 5386 9564 7 S2CID 59601449 Bencic Federico Matteo Podnar Zarko Ivana 26 April 2018 Distributed Ledger Technology Blockchain Compared to Directed Acyclic Graph 2018 IEEE 38th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems ICDCS University of Zagreb pp 1569 1570 arXiv 1804 10013 doi 10 1109 ICDCS 2018 00171 ISBN 978 1 5386 6871 9 S2CID 13741873 Banks Should Be Allowed to Trade Crypto by cxihub Nov 2021 The Open Finance Journal 2 November 2021 Archived from the original on 2 November 2021 Retrieved 17 August 2022 Makarov Igor Schoar Antoinette 2020 Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets PDF Journal of Financial Economics 135 2 293 319 doi 10 1016 j jfineco 2019 07 001 S2CID 53072748 Archived PDF from the original on 8 February 2023 Retrieved 7 February 2023 Xu Jiahua Ackerer Damien Dubovitskaya Alevtina July 2021 A Game Theoretic Analysis of Cross Chain Atomic Swaps with HTLCS 2021 IEEE 41st International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems ICDCS pp 584 594 arXiv 2011 11325 doi 10 1109 ICDCS51616 2021 00062 ISBN 978 1 6654 4513 9 S2CID 227126965 Archived from the original on 22 May 2022 Retrieved 18 May 2022 Wahba Phil 18 February 2014 First U S bitcoin ATMs to open soon in Seattle Austin Reuters Archived from the original on 19 October 2015 Retrieved 17 August 2022 CSA Staff Notice 46 307 Cryptocurrency Offerings Ontario Securities Commission 24 August 2017 Archived from the original on 29 September 2017 Retrieved 20 January 2018 SEC Issues Investigative Report Concluding DAO Tokens a Digital Asset Were Securities sec gov 25 July 2017 Archived from the original on 10 October 2017 Retrieved 20 January 2018 Company Halts ICO After SEC Raises Registration Concerns sec gov 11 December 2017 Archived from the original on 19 January 2018 Retrieved 20 January 2018 Switzerland sets out guidelines to support initial coin offerings Financial Times 16 February 2018 Archived from the original on 27 May 2018 Retrieved 17 August 2022 Meynkhard Artur 28 November 2019 Fair market value of bitcoin halving effect Investment Management and Financial Innovations 16 4 72 85 doi 10 21511 imfi 16 4 2019 07 S2CID 212850773 Harris Craig 10 June 2021 Cryptocurrency to become option for some workers 401 k retirement plans WSJ reports USA TODAY Archived from the original on 14 June 2021 Retrieved 16 June 2021 Morris Chris 10 June 2021 Coinbase will let you add crypto to your 401 k through new deal Fortune Archived from the original on 20 June 2021 Retrieved 16 June 2021 Asymkos Stephanie 10 June 2021 Bitcoin and crypto go mainstream with new 401 k retirement offering money yahoo com Archived from the original on 17 June 2021 Retrieved 16 June 2021 Russell Jones Lily 15 May 2022 What s happening to cryptocurrencies Sunday Times Archived from the original on 22 May 2022 Retrieved 1 June 2022 Tetrina Kat 1 March 2022 Top 10 Cryptocurrencies In March 2022 Forbes Archived from the original on 5 April 2022 Retrieved 1 June 2022 A history of cryptocurrency from gaming tokens to a 2tn market Financial Times 30 November 2021 Archived from the original on 24 October 2022 Retrieved 24 October 2022 Russell Jones Lily Cryptocurrency market slumps below 1trn The Times ISSN 0140 0460 Archived from the original on 25 September 2022 Retrieved 24 October 2022 Bitcoin Other Cryptos Fall on Hot Inflation Report WSJ Archived from the original on 24 October 2022 Retrieved 24 October 2022 Vidal Tomas David 2022 Which cryptocurrency data sources should scholars use International Review of Financial Analysis 81 102061 doi 10 1016 j irfa 2022 102061 S2CID 246932706 Archived from the original on 18 June 2022 Retrieved 18 April 2022 Feuer Alan 14 December 2013 The Bitcoin Ideology The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 1 July 2018 Retrieved 1 March 2022 Krugman Paul 29 January 2018 Opinion Bubble Bubble Fraud and Trouble The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 4 June 2018 Retrieved 1 March 2022 Review of The Politics of Bitcoin Software as Right Wing Extremism NewsClick 28 October 2016 Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 1 March 2022 Peters Jeremy W Popper Nathaniel 14 June 2018 Stephen Bannon Buys Into Bitcoin The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 1 July 2018 Retrieved 1 March 2022 Bitcoin P2P e cash paper Satoshi Nakamoto Institute satoshi nakamotoinstitute org Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 10 March 2022 Hayek Friedrich A von Friedrich August 1990 Denationalisation of money the argument refined an analysis of the theory and practice of concurrent currencies Internet Archive London Institute of Economic Affairs ISBN 978 0 255 36239 9 Virtual Currency Schemes PDF European Central Bank October 2012 ISBN 978 92 899 0862 7 archived PDF from the original on 25 May 2018 retrieved 1 March 2022 Guidance for a Risk Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers FATF 2019 archived from the original on 26 July 2021 retrieved 22 July 2021 interVASP Messaging Standards PDF intervasp org Archived PDF from the original on 9 October 2021 Retrieved 13 October 2021 12 Month Review of the Revised FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers PDF www fatf gafi org Archived PDF from the original on 28 October 2021 Retrieved 13 October 2021 Travel Rule Specification Bitcoin SV Technical Standards tsc bitcoinassociation net Archived from the original on 27 October 2021 Retrieved 13 October 2021 Proposal for regulation of Markets in Crypto assets and amending Directive EU 2019 1937 European Commission 24 September 2020 archived from the original on 23 August 2021 retrieved 23 August 2021 Zetzsche Dirk A Annunziata Filippo Arner Douglas W Holdings Kerry Buckley Ross P 30 November 2020 The Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation MiCA and the EU Digital Finance Strategy University of Oxford Faculty of Law archived from the original on 23 August 2021 retrieved 23 August 2021 Flood Chris 31 January 2022 Crypto risks destabilising emerging markets says senior IMF official Financial Times Archived from the original on 31 January 2022 Retrieved 31 January 2022 Zhang Sijia Gregoriou Andros 27 November 2020 The price and liquidity impact of China forbidding initial coin offerings on the cryptocurrency market Applied Economics Letters 27 20 1695 1698 doi 10 1080 13504851 2020 1713979 ISSN 1350 4851 S2CID 214099348 Archived from the original on 4 August 2022 Retrieved 4 August 2022 China bans financial payment institutions from cryptocurrency business Reuters 18 May 2021 Archived from the original on 11 July 2021 Retrieved 12 July 2021 Nagarajan Shalini 19 May 2021 Bitcoin tumbles as low as 30 000 amid a broad crypto sell off after China signals a crackdown Business Insider Archived from the original on 12 July 2021 Retrieved 12 July 2021 Shen Samuel John Alun 19 June 2021 China s cryptocurrency mining crackdown spreads to Sichuan Reuters Archived from the original on 20 May 2022 Retrieved 9 May 2022 In a world first El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender Reuters 9 June 2021 Archived from the original on 12 August 2021 Retrieved 14 July 2021 RBI Lost Case on Cryptocurrency in Supreme Court It Must Stop Behaving Like Sore Loser News18 18 September 2021 Archived from the original on 24 January 2022 Retrieved 24 January 2022 Perumal Prashanth 2 June 2021 Future of cryptocurrency in India continues to hang in the balance The Hindu ISSN 0971 751X Archived from the original on 24 January 2022 Retrieved 24 January 2022 From ban to regulation cryptocurrency s journey so far in India The Indian Express 1 December 2021 Archived from the original on 24 January 2022 Retrieved 24 January 2022 SC Verdict On Cryptocurrencies What It Means For Investors Moneycontrol 25 March 2020 Archived from the original on 24 January 2022 Retrieved 24 January 2022 Why is the Indian government cracking down on cryptocurrency Deutsche Welle Archived from the original on 28 January 2022 Retrieved 24 January 2022 mumbaiuncensoredadmin 15 January 2022 The Crypto Effect Framework challenges amp The way forward Archived from the original on 24 January 2022 Retrieved 24 January 2022 South Africa Moves to Tighten Crypto Regulation After Scams www bloomberg com 29 June 2021 Archived from the original on 7 July 2021 Retrieved 13 July 2021 a b South Africa s 4 billion in crypto scams has regulators scrambling to bring in new regulations within the next three to six months Business Insider 1 July 2021 Archived from the original on 13 July 2021 Retrieved 13 July 2021 a b South Korea Tightens Regulations on Cryptocurrencies thediplomat com 3 July 2021 Archived from the original on 14 July 2021 Retrieved 14 July 2021 FINMA Guidance 02 2019 PDF Archived PDF from the original on 14 August 2022 Retrieved 31 December 2022 No more kebabs for bitcoins as Turkey s crypto payment ban looms Reuters 28 April 2021 Archived from the original on 14 July 2021 Retrieved 14 July 2021 Bitcoin Exchange Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance Archived from the original on 3 August 2022 Retrieved 12 July 2021 Samson Adam 27 June 2021 Financial watchdog bans crypto exchange Binance from UK Financial Times Archived from the original on 12 July 2021 Retrieved 12 July 2021 Morton Heather 16 December 2021 Cryptocurrency 2021 Legislation National Conference of State Legislatures Archived from the original on 10 February 2021 Retrieved 4 January 2021 Pimentel Benjamin 11 August 2021 SEC chair pleads for power to protect crypto investors in volatile sector protocol Archived from the original on 3 April 2023 Retrieved 2 April 2023 Macheel Tanaya 18 October 2021 First bitcoin futures ETF to make its debut Tuesday on the NYSE ProShares says CNBC Archived from the original on 3 April 2023 Retrieved 2 April 2023 Franck Thomas 20 May 2021 U S Treasury calls for stricter cryptocurrency compliance with IRS says they pose tax evasion risk CNBC Archived from the original on 3 April 2023 Retrieved 2 April 2023 US Justice Department taps new cryptocurrency czar Aljazeera Archived from the original on 19 February 2022 Retrieved 19 February 2022 Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets The White House 9 March 2022 Archived from the original on 14 March 2022 Retrieved 2 April 2023 FACT SHEET White House Releases First Ever Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets The White House 16 September 2022 Archived from the original on 1 April 2023 Retrieved 2 April 2023 Wolff Josephine 17 October 2022 The competing priorities facing U S crypto regulations Brookings Archived from the original on 3 April 2023 Retrieved 2 April 2023 Crypto Exchange Kraken Ends Staking Program in 30 Million SEC Settlement Bloomberg com 9 February 2023 Archived from the original on 24 February 2023 Retrieved 12 February 2023 US watchdog warns of risks of buying crypto asset securities Reuters com 23 March 2023 Archived from the original on 2 April 2023 Retrieved 2 April 2023 Ehrlich Steven Janet Yellen Bitcoin And Crypto Fearmongers Get Pushback From Former CIA Director Forbes Archived from the original on 14 April 2021 Retrieved 14 April 2021 Kharpal Arjun 12 April 2017 Bitcoin value rises over 1 billion as Japan Russia move to legitimize cryptocurrency CNBC Archived from the original on 19 March 2018 Retrieved 19 March 2018 Regulation of Cryptocurrency Around the World November 2021 Update PDF Library of Congress The Law Library of Congress Global Legal Research Center November 2021 pp 1 61 Retrieved 19 October 2023 Fung Brian 21 May 2018 State regulators unveil nationwide crackdown on suspicious cryptocurrency investment schemes The Washington Post Archived from the original on 27 May 2018 Retrieved 27 May 2018 Bitcoin s Legality Around The World Archived 16 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine Forbes 31 January 2014 Tasca Paolo 7 September 2015 Digital Currencies Principles Trends Opportunities and Risks SSRN 2657598 Thompson Luke 24 August 2018 Bank of Thailand to launch its own crypto currency Asia Times Retrieved 27 August 2018 a b c Weinglass Simona 28 March 2018 European Union bans binary options strictly regulates CFDs The Times of Israel Archived from the original on 1 April 2018 Retrieved 2 April 2018 Google Ads updates cryptocurrency ad policies Search Engine Land 3 June 2021 Archived from the original on 16 January 2022 Retrieved 16 March 2023 Facebook retreats from crypto ad ban CNBC 1 December 2021 Archived from the original on 3 September 2022 Retrieved 16 March 2023 Alsoszatai Petheo Melissa 14 May 2018 Bing Ads to disallow cryptocurrency advertising Microsoft Archived from the original on 17 May 2018 Retrieved 16 May 2018 Crypto exchange ads now allowed on Microsoft Ads with pre approval Search Engine Land 1 June 2022 Archived from the original on 7 July 2022 Retrieved 16 March 2023 a b Wilson Thomas 28 March 2018 Twitter and LinkedIn ban cryptocurrency adverts leaving regulators behind Independent Reuters Archived from the original on 4 April 2018 Retrieved 3 April 2018 French Jordan 2 April 2018 3 Key Factors Behind Bitcoin s Current Slide theStreet com Archived from the original on 3 April 2018 Retrieved 2 April 2018 Schaub Mark Phares H Banker 15 August 2020 Cryptocurrency value changes in response to national elections do they behave like money or commodities Applied Economics Letters 27 14 1135 1140 doi 10 1080 13504851 2019 1673297 ISSN 1350 4851 S2CID 211450156 Archived from the original on 27 March 2022 Retrieved 18 April 2022 Iwamura Mitsuru Kitamura Yukinobu Matsumoto Tsutomu 28 February 2014 Is Bitcoin the Only Cryptocurrency in the Town Economics of Cryptocurrency and Friedrich A Hayek SSRN 2405790 a b c d e Ali S T Clarke D McCorry P Bitcoin Perils of an Unregulated Global P2P Currency Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle University Computing Science 2015 Technical Report Series No CS TR 1470 How white supremacists and the far right use Bitcoin to evade the law and get rich Fortune Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 1 March 2022 How white supremacists and the far right use Bitcoin to evade the law and get rich Fortune Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 14 May 2022 Mt Gox Seeks Bankruptcy After 480 Million Bitcoin Loss Archived 12 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine Carter Dougherty and Grace Huang Bloomberg News 28 February 2014 Russell Jon Tether a startup that works with bitcoin exchanges claims a hacker stole 31M TechCrunch Archived from the original on 21 November 2017 Retrieved 22 November 2017 Iyengar Rishi 7 December 2017 More than 70 million stolen in bitcoin hack CNNMoney Archived from the original on 20 September 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Haselton Todd 19 December 2017 A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange files for bankruptcy after hack says users will get 75 of assets for now CNBC Archived from the original on 6 September 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 South Korean cryptocurrency exchange to file for bankruptcy after hacking Reuters 19 December 2017 Archived from the original on 28 May 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Cimpanu Catalin 4 September 2018 Bitcoin Gold delisted from major cryptocurrency exchange after refusing to pay hack damages ZDNet Archived from the original on 24 May 2022 Retrieved 11 February 2020 Former Virtual Currency CEO Involved in 9 Million Fraud Scheme Sentenced to Prison www justice gov 13 September 2018 Archived from the original on 2 March 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Cyris Farivar GAW Miners founder owes nearly 10 million to SEC over Bitcoin fraud Archived 29 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine Ars Technica 5 October 2017 Shane Daniel 29 January 2018 530 million cryptocurrency heist may be biggest ever CNNMoney Archived from the original on 15 August 2019 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Shane Daniel 11 June 2018 Billions in cryptocurrency wealth wiped out after hack CNNMoney Archived from the original on 11 July 2018 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Lam Eric Lee Jiyeun Robertson Jordan 10 June 2018 Cryptocurrencies Lose 42 Billion After South Korean Bourse Hack Bloomberg News archived from the original on 12 June 2018 retrieved 12 June 2018 Roberts Jeff John 9 July 2018 Another Crypto Fail Hackers Steal 23 5 Million from Token Service Bancor Fortune Archived from the original on 10 July 2018 Retrieved 10 July 2018 Houben Robby Snyers Alexander April 2020 Crypto assets Key developments regulatory concerns and responses PDF EU Directorate General for Internal Policies archived PDF from the original on 16 July 2021 retrieved 16 July 2021 Attorney General William P Barr Announces Publication of Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework www justice gov 8 October 2020 Archived from the original on 17 January 2022 Retrieved 17 January 2022 DOJ Releases Cryptocurrency Enforcement Report The National Law Review Archived from the original on 17 January 2022 Retrieved 17 January 2022 National risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing 2020 GOV UK Archived from the original on 18 January 2022 Retrieved 17 January 2022 Campbell Verduyn Malcolm 1 March 2018 Bitcoin crypto coins and global anti money laundering governance Crime Law and Social Change 69 2 288 doi 10 1007 s10611 017 9756 5 ISSN 1573 0751 S2CID 149437925 Report Illicit activity actually a tiny part of cryptocurrency use 6 January 2022 Archived from the original on 23 August 2022 Retrieved 23 August 2022 Sun Mengqi Smagalla David 6 January 2022 Cryptocurrency Based Crime Hit a Record 14 Billion in 2021 The Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Archived from the original on 7 October 2022 Retrieved 16 January 2022 Crypto Crime Trends for 2022 Illicit Transaction Activity Reaches All Time High in Value All Time Low in Share of All Cryptocurrency Activity Chainalysis 6 January 2022 Archived from the original on 15 January 2022 Retrieved 16 January 2022 Ye Josh 22 December 2021 Hot Hong Kong NFT project Monkey Kingdom loses US 1 3 million in hack exposing security concerns SCMP Archived from the original on 13 April 2022 Retrieved 13 April 2022 Crypto money laundering rises 30 report finds BBC News 26 January 2022 Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Sackey Andrew Shah Hinesh 4 February 2022 Cryptocurrency money laundering on DeFi skyrockets Pinsent Masons Archived from the original on 2 March 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 a b Russian Cybercriminals Drive Significant Ransomware and Cryptocurrency based Money Laundering Activity Chainalysis 14 February 2022 Archived from the original on 3 March 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Bergwick Angus 13 October 2023 The Crypto Exchange Moving Money for Criminal Gangs Rich Russians and a Hamas Linked Terror Group Wall Street Journal Founder and Majority Owner of Bitzlato a Cryptocurrency Exchange Charged with Unlicensed Money Transmitting www justice gov 18 January 2023 Archived from the original on 18 January 2023 Retrieved 18 January 2023 Flitter Emily Yaffe Bellany David 23 February 2022 Russia Could Use Cryptocurrency to Blunt the Force of U S Sanctions The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Matthews Owen 18 September 2017 Why Russia is finally embracing virtual currencies Hint It rhymes with honey wandering Newsweek Archived from the original on 2 March 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Cross chain Crime More Than Half a Billion Dollars has Been Laundered Through a Cross chain Bridge Elliptic Connect 8 October 2022 Archived from the original on 2 April 2023 Retrieved 2 April 2023 Raeesi Reza 23 April 2015 The Silk Road Bitcoins and the Global Prohibition Regime on the International Trade in Illicit Drugs Can this Storm Be Weathered Glendon Journal of International Studies Revue d Etudes Internationales de Glendon 8 1 2 ISSN 2291 3920 Archived from the original on 22 December 2015 a b Six Months After Bitwise Wash Trading Lives on in Crypto Finance Magnates Financial and Business News Finance Magnates 25 September 2019 Archived from the original on 3 March 2022 Retrieved 3 March 2022 Bovaird Charles 95 Of Reported Bitcoin Trading Volume Is Fake Says Bitwise Forbes Archived from the original on 3 March 2022 Retrieved 3 March 2022 U S Warns Banks Crypto Firms Against Potential Efforts to Evade Russian Sanctions Archived 10 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine 9 March 2022 www wsj com Retrieved 9 March 2022 US cryptocurrency expert jailed for helping North Korea evade sanctions BBC News 13 April 2022 Archived from the original on 14 May 2022 Retrieved 14 May 2022 a b Janda Michael 18 June 2018 Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin cannot replace money says Bank for International Settlements ABC Australia Archived from the original on 18 June 2018 Retrieved 18 June 2018 Hyun Song Shin June 2018 Chapter V Cryptocurrencies looking beyond the hype PDF BIS 2018 Annual Economic Report Bank for International Settlements Archived PDF from the original on 18 June 2018 Retrieved 19 June 2018 Put in the simplest terms the quest for decentralised trust has quickly become an environmental disaster Hiltzik Michael 18 June 2018 Is this scathing report the death knell for bitcoin Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on 18 June 2018 Retrieved 19 June 2018 Polgar David 28 February 2018 Cryptocurrency is a giant multi level marketing scheme Quartz Quartz Media LLC Archived from the original on 1 March 2018 Retrieved 2 March 2018 Analysis of Cryptocurrency Bubbles Archived 24 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine Bitcoins and Bank Runs Analysis of Market Imperfections and Investor Hysterics Social Science Research Network SSRN Retrieved 24 December 2017 McCrum Dan 10 November 2015 Bitcoin s place in the long history of pyramid schemes Financial Times archived from the original on 23 March 2017 Kim Tae 27 July 2017 Billionaire investor Marks who called the dotcom bubble says bitcoin is a pyramid scheme CNBC archived from the original on 5 September 2017 Schwartzkopff Frances 17 December 2013 Bitcoins Spark Regulatory Crackdown as Denmark Drafts Rules Bloomberg Archived from the original on 29 December 2013 Retrieved 29 December 2013 Fedorova Anna 17 June 2021 FCA warns on UK crypto use increase despite gaps in understanding Investment Week Archived from the original on 28 May 2022 Retrieved 9 May 2022 Oliver Joshua 17 June 2021 Most would be crypto investors unaware of UK regulator s warnings Financial Times Archived from the original on 24 June 2021 Retrieved 23 June 2021 Browne Ryan 19 October 2021 Most young crypto traders don t realize it s not regulated UK markets watchdog says CNBC Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 1 March 2022 Unauthorised firms and individuals Financial Conduct Authority FCA 19 August 2021 Archived from the original on 3 March 2022 Retrieved 3 March 2022 Sidel Robin 22 December 2013 Banks Mostly Avoid Providing Bitcoin Services Lenders Don t Share Investors Enthusiasm for the Virtual Currency Craze The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on 19 November 2015 Retrieved 29 December 2013 Central Bank official warns on Bitcoin impact RTE 3 July 2014 Archived from the original on 9 February 2015 Warnings and blacklists of unauthorized companies and websites Forex binary options miscellaneous goods crypto assets derivatives usurpations AMF Archived from the original on 2 March 2022 Retrieved 2 March 2022 Bitcoin Is Still Concentrated in a Few Hands Study Finds Time Retrieved 3 March 2022 Bitcoin s price just passed a huge milestone Fortune Archived from the original on 3 March 2022 Retrieved 3 March 2022 Popper Nathaniel 13 June 2018 Bitcoin s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year Researchers Say CNBC Archived from the original on 3 March 2022 Retrieved 3 March 2022 Lowenstein Roger 12 November 2022 FTX s founder was called a modern day J P Morgan The analogy still works The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 13 November 2022 Retrieved 13 November 2022 Son Hugh 17 March 2021 Morgan Stanley becomes the first big U S bank to offer its wealthy clients access to bitcoin funds CNBC Archived from the original on 1 August 2021 Retrieved 1 August 2021 Franck Thomas 11 February 2021 BNY Mellon to offer bitcoin services a validation of crypto from a key bank in the financial system CNBC Archived from the original on 1 August 2021 Retrieved 1 August 2021 Venmo adds support for buying holding and selling cryptocurrencies TechCrunch 20 April 2021 Retrieved 1 August 2021 permanent dead link Buying Cryptocurrency on Venmo Venmo Archived from the original on 31 July 2021 Retrieved 1 August 2021 Son Hugh 25 October 2021 Mastercard says any bank or merchant on its vast network can soon offer crypto services CNBC Archived from the original on 28 November 2021 Retrieved 29 November 2021 Foteinis Spyros 7 February 2018 Bitcoin s alarming carbon footprint Nature 554 7691 169 Bibcode 2018Natur 554 169F doi 10 1038 d41586 018 01625 x Krause Max J Tolaymat Thabet November 2018 Quantification of energy and carbon costs for mining cryptocurrencies Nature Sustainability 1 11 711 718 Bibcode 2018NatSu 1 711K doi 10 1038 s41893 018 0152 7 S2CID 169170289 Stoll Christian Klaassen Lena Gallersdorfer Ulrich July 2019 The Carbon Footprint of Bitcoin Joule 3 7 1647 1661 doi 10 1016 j joule 2019 05 012 Davies Pascale 26 February 2022 Bitcoin mining is worse for the environment now since China banned it euronews Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 1 March 2022 Huang Jon O Neill Claire Tabuchi Hiroko 3 September 2021 Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries How Is That Possible The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 17 February 2023 Retrieved 1 March 2022 Bitcoin energy consumption worldwide 2017 2021 Statista Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 1 March 2022 de Vries Alex April 2019 Renewable Energy Will Not Solve Bitcoin s Sustainability Problem Joule 3 4 893 898 doi 10 1016 j joule 2019 02 007 S2CID 169784459 Livni Ephrat 11 October 2021 Can Crypto Go Green The New York Times Archived from the original on 22 January 2022 Retrieved 23 January 2022 Ponciano Jonathan Bill Gates Sounds Alarm On Bitcoin s Energy Consumption Here s Why Crypto Is Bad For Climate Change Forbes Archived from the original on 11 July 2021 Retrieved 30 July 2021 Dance Gabriel J X Wallace Tim Levitt Zach 10 April 2023 The Real World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 10 April 2023 Retrieved 14 April 2023 Harper Chris 13 May 2021 The most energy efficient cryptocurrency after Tesla axed Bitcoin BirminghamLive Archived from the original on 13 July 2021 Retrieved 30 July 2021 Gedeon Kimberly 1 June 2021 The most energy efficient cryptocurrencies Tesla s top picks to replace Bitcoin LaptopMag Archived from the original on 30 July 2021 Retrieved 30 July 2021 Lacey Rachel 1 March 2022 Everything you need to know about eco friendly cryptocurrencies The Times Archived from the original on 8 May 2022 Retrieved 9 May 2022 Ossinger Joanna 2 February 2022 Polkadot Has Least Carbon Footprint Crypto Researcher Says Bloomberg Archived from the original on 12 April 2022 Retrieved 9 May 2022 Spencer Jones Jonathan 13 September 2021 Proof of stake blockchains not all are equal Smart Energy International Archived from the original on 25 September 2021 Retrieved 9 May 2022 Fridgen Gilbert Korner Marc Fabian Walters Steffen Weibelzahl Martin 9 March 2021 Not All Doom and Gloom How Energy Intensive and Temporally Flexible Data Center Applications May Actually Promote Renewable Energy Sources Business amp Information Systems Engineering 63 3 243 256 doi 10 1007 s12599 021 00686 z ISSN 2363 7005 S2CID 233664180 To gain applicable knowledge this paper evaluates the developed model by means of two use cases with real world data namely AWS computing instances for training Machine Learning algorithms and Bitcoin mining as relevant DC applications The results illustrate that for both cases the NPV of the IES compared to a stand alone RES plant increases which may lead to a promotion of RES plants Dajani Mona E 26 April 2021 Green Bitcoin Does Not Have to Be an Oxymoron news bloomberglaw com Archived from the original on 16 January 2022 Retrieved 16 January 2022 One way to invest in Bitcoin that has a positive effect on renewable energy is to encourage mining operations near wind or solar sites This provides a customer for power that might otherwise need to be transmitted or stored saving money as well as carbon Eid Bilal Islam Md Rabiul Shah Rakibuzzaman Nahid Abdullah Al Kouzani Abbas Z Mahmud M A Parvez 1 November 2021 Enhanced Profitability of Photovoltaic Plants By Utilizing Cryptocurrency Based Mining Load IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity 31 8 1 5 Bibcode 2021ITAS 3196503E doi 10 1109 TASC 2021 3096503 hdl 20 500 11782 2513 ISSN 1558 2515 S2CID 237245955 Archived from the original on 28 January 2022 Retrieved 25 January 2022 The grid connected photovoltaic PV power plants PVPPs are booming nowadays The main problem facing the PV power plants deployment is the intermittency which leads to instability of the grid This paper investigating the usage of a customized load cryptocurrency mining rig to create an added value for the owner of the plant and increase the ROI of the project The developed strategy is able to keep the profitability as high as possible during the fluctuation of the mining network Bastian Pinto Carlos L Araujo Felipe V de S Brandao Luiz E Gomes Leonardo L 1 March 2021 Hedging renewable energy investments with Bitcoin mining Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 138 110520 doi 10 1016 j rser 2020 110520 ISSN 1364 0321 S2CID 228861639 Windfarms can hedge electricity price risk by investing in Bitcoin mining These findings which can also be applied to other renewable energy sources may be of interest to both the energy generator as well as the system regulator as it creates an incentive for early investment in sustainable and renewable energy sources Rennie Ellie 2021 Climate change and the legitimacy of Bitcoin SSRN Electronic Journal doi 10 2139 ssrn 3961105 ISSN 1556 5068 S2CID 244155800 Want to make money off Bitcoin mining Hint Don t mine Archived 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine The Week 15 April 2013 Keeping Your Cryptocurrency Safe Archived 12 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine Center for a Stateless Society 1 April 2014 Hertig Alyssa 15 September 2015 Introducing Ledger the First Bitcoin Only Academic Journal Motherboard Archived from the original on 10 January 2017 Editorial Policies ledgerjournal org Archived from the original on 23 December 2016 Retrieved 24 September 2015 How to Write and Format an Article for Ledger PDF Ledger 2015 doi 10 5195 LEDGER 2015 1 inactive 31 January 2024 Archived PDF from the original on 22 September 2015 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint DOI inactive as of January 2024 link Mendoza Ron 14 October 2019 UNICEF Blockchain Fund First UN organization To Accept Cryptocurrency Donations IB Times Archived from the original on 14 October 2019 Retrieved 14 October 2019 UNICEF launches Cryptocurrency Fund www unicef org 9 October 2019 Archived from the original on 2 November 2019 Retrieved 1 November 2019 Doshi Vidhi 9 October 2019 Unicef now accepting donations through bitcoin and ether The Guardian Archived from the original on 28 October 2020 Retrieved 22 October 2020 Murray Allison 2 March 2022 Charities are turning to bitcoin and NFTs to raise money Not everyone thinks it s a great idea ZDNet Archived from the original on 12 May 2022 Retrieved 9 May 2022 Martin Katie Nauman Billy 20 May 2021 Bitcoin s growing energy problem It s a dirty currency Financial Times Archived from the original on 9 February 2022 Retrieved 8 February 2022 Browne Ryan 27 February 2022 Ukraine government raises over 10 million in cryptocurrency donations CNBC Archived from the original on 25 March 2022 Retrieved 27 February 2022 Ciolli Jacqui Frank Kara Chin Joe Paul Krugman Bitcoin is a more obvious bubble than housing was Business Insider Archived from the original on 1 March 2022 Retrieved 1 March 2022 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Shiller Robert 1 March 2014 In Search of a Stable Electronic Currency The New York Times Archived from the original on 24 October 2014 Costelloe Kevin 29 November 2017 Bitcoin Ought to Be Outlawed Nobel Prize Winner Stiglitz Says Bloomberg Archived from the original on 12 June 2018 It doesn t serve any socially useful function Economics Nobel prize winner Richard Thaler The market that looks most like a bubble to me is Bitcoin and its brethren ECO Portuguese Economy 22 January 2018 Archived from the original on 12 June 2018 a b c d Wolff Mann Ethan 27 April 2018 Only good for drug dealers More Nobel prize winners snub bitcoin Yahoo Finance Archived from the original on 12 June 2018 Kearns Jeff 4 December 2013 Greenspan Says Bitcoin a Bubble Without Intrinsic Currency Value bloomberg com Bloomberg LP Archived from the original on 29 December 2013 Central banker takes stab at bitcoin bubble Phys org AFP 6 February 2018 Archived from the original on 12 June 2018 Bitcoin is like Tulipmania says ECB vice president The Financial Times 22 September 2017 Archived from the original on 30 September 2017 Hern Alex 4 December 2013 Bitcoin hype worse than tulip mania says Dutch central banker The Guardian Archived from the original on 20 March 2017 Crippen Alex 14 March 2014 Bitcoin Here s what Warren Buffett is saying CNBC Archived from the original on 13 January 2017 Retrieved 11 January 2017 Porzecanski Katia 25 January 2018 George Soros Bitcoin is a bubble Trump is a danger to the world Globe and Mail Bloomberg News Archived from the original on 9 June 2018 Retrieved 7 June 2018 Yang Yingzhi 18 May 2018 There s a bitcoin bubble says Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma South China Morning Post Archived from the original on 10 June 2018 Retrieved 10 June 2018 Cheng Evelyn 7 June 2018 Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon on bitcoin Beware CNBC Archived from the original on 9 June 2018 Retrieved 7 June 2018 Kim Tae 9 January 2018 Jamie Dimon says he regrets calling bitcoin a fraud and believes in the technology behind it CNBC Archived from the original on 13 January 2018 Retrieved 31 December 2020 Imbert Fred 13 October 2017 BlackRock CEO Larry Fink calls bitcoin an index of money laundering CNBC Archived from the original on 30 October 2017 Retrieved 19 November 2017 Browne Ryan 15 June 2022 Bill Gates says crypto and NFTs are 100 based on greater fool theory CNBC Archived from the original on 15 June 2022 Retrieved 15 June 2022 Muller Lukas Ong Malik 17 February 2020 Aktuelles zum Recht der Kryptowahrungen Current state of the law of crypto currencies PDF Aktuelle Juristische Praxis Pratique Juridique Actuelle in German 2 Archived PDF from the original on 10 February 2022 Retrieved 17 February 2023 Baer Katherine De Mooij Ruud Hebous Shafik Keen Michael 2023 Taxing cryptocurrencies Oxford Review of Economic Policy 39 3 478 497 doi 10 1093 oxrep grad035 Emem Mark 12 June 2019 Chinese Bitcoin Trader Commits Suicide after Losing 2 000 BTC on 100x Leverage Bet finance yahoo com Archived from the original on 2 May 2022 Retrieved 2 May 2022 Evans Holly Sharman Laura 17 February 2022 Bitcoin trader 23 takes own life after break up and losing all his money Mirror Archived from the original on 2 May 2022 Retrieved 2 May 2022 Sarlin Jon 17 May 2022 Stablecoins were supposed to be stable Then the crash came CNN Archived from the original on 29 May 2022 Retrieved 30 May 2022 Further readingChayka Kyle 2 July 2013 What Comes After Bitcoin Pacific Standard Retrieved 18 January 2014 Guadamuz Andres Marsden Chris 2015 Blockchains and Bitcoin Regulatory responses to cryptocurrencies PDF First Monday 20 12 doi 10 5210 fm v20i12 6198 S2CID 811921 External links nbsp Media related to Cryptocurrency at Wikimedia Commons nbsp Quotations related to Cryptocurrency at Wikiquote nbsp Learning materials related to Should cryptocurrencies be banned at Wikiversity Portals nbsp Business and economics nbsp Free and open source software li, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.