DP14972 The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies
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 cryptocurrencies
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.
