Working Paper

Another Look at Cryptocurrency Bubbles

Marc Gronwald
CESifo, Munich, 2019

CESifo Working Paper No. 7743

This paper deals with cryptocurrency bubbles. First, it points out that a number of recent papers on cryptocurrency bubbles are awed due to an insufficient consideration of the fundamental value of cryptocurrencies. As even fiat money is said to exhibit features of bubbles, the same applies to cryptocurrencies. Thus, any empirical investigation into either the presence of cryptocurrency bubbles or the fundamental value of cryptocurrencies is needless. Second, the paper conducts a short empirical analysis into the relationship of the prices of Etherum and Bitcoin. Evidence of explosive periods is found in the price of Etherum even if this price is expressed in terms of Bitcoin rather than US Dollars. These periods, however, are found to be in the first half of 2016 and 2017, respectively, but not during the price peak period of Bitcoin witnessed end of 2017 and beginning of 2018.

CESifo Category
Monetary Policy and International Finance
Empirical and Theoretical Methods
Keywords: cryptocurrencies, bubbles, bitcoin, Etherum, fundamental value, intrinsic value, fiat money
JEL Classification: C120, C220, E420, E520, G120