← Search

The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies

Hanna Hałaburda1; Guillaume Haeringer2; Joshua S. Gans3; Neil Gandal4

1 NYU Stern · 2 Baruch College · 3 University of Toronto · 4 Tel Aviv University

Journal of Economic Literature 2022 open access

Since its launch in 2009 much has been written about Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and blockchains. While the discussions initially took place mostly on blogs and other popular media, we now are witnessing the emergence of a growing body of rigorous academic research on these topics. By the nature of the phenomenon analyzed, this research spans many academic disciplines including macroeconomics, law and economics, and computer science. This survey focuses on the microeconomics of crypto-currencies themselves. What drives their supply, demand, trading price, and competition amongst them? This literature has been emerging over the past decade and the purpose of this paper is to summarize its main findings so as to establish a base upon which future research can be conducted. (JEL D82, E42, G12)

DOI
10.1257/jel.20201593
Volume
60 (3)
Pages
971-1013
Language
en
Export
BibTeX
Sources
openalex crossref