The motive behind the demand for cryptocurrencies: Theoretical and empirical analysis of the Bitcoin

Abstract

The blockchain technology and cryptocurrency are now in the centre of the financial market. The raise of the cryptocurrencies represented by Bitcoin have attracted a large group of scholars to analyze the underlying dynamics of their price fluctuations. Intensive debate emerged on the intrinsic features of Bitcoin. In theoretical analysis, we developed the principle of monetary convention to define the concept of monetary consensus, capturing the nature of monetary system, and categorize it into three types: traditional, algorithm and hybrid. Based on the Wavelet Coherence Analysis, we try to analyze Bitcoin price dynamics in both time and frequency domains, comparing Bitcoin with financial assets, economic and financial indexes, and other cryptocurrencies.