Blockchain Papers

Anna Hupe

No abstract is available for this record.

Anna Gambaro, Leandro Benito, Bertolosi Cristina, Paola Zocchi · 5 authors

In this article, we compare financial knowledge levels and identify the determinants of financial attitudes among 16-20-year-old students in Italy and the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain). We combine cross-country comparative evidence with data-driven variable selection based on machine learning techniques and theory-driven modelling of financial attitudes. Our study offers an original contribution to the literature on youth financial literacy and behaviour in emerging digital financial domains, namely instalment-based credit solutions and cryptocurrency investments. Our findings reveal that Galician students display higher average financial knowledge than Italian ones and have a higher propensity to use instalment payments and to invest in cryptocurrencies. Financial knowledge plays a central role in shaping both credit and investment attitudes, alongside experience, income, and behavioural traits, with significant cross-country differences. More specific knowledge in each domain is associated with more cautious attitudes, suggesting that deeper understanding relates with more prudent behaviour. Among Italian educational pathways, technical institutes appear to be the only track able to substantially reduce the literacy gap. These insights highlight the need for a reform of financial education pathways, with greater emphasis on experiential learning and student-involving teaching strategies.

Shehzad Ahmed, Rafiqul Bhuyan

Purpose — This paper investigates whether perpetual futures can satisfy Islamic prohibitions on riba (interest), gharar (uncertainty), and maysir (speculation) — a question unaddressed by prior literature. Design/methodology/approach — The study develops a four-category taxonomy of perpetual futures by funding-formula structure, collects 39,406 unique funding-rate intervals across four platforms over 365 days (February 2025 – February 2026), and analyses a cross-platform comparison — with a placebo design — between interest-bearing and interest-free DEX protocols. Shariah analysis applies El-Gamal's riba conditions, Kamali's standardisation criterion, and Salamon's maysir test. Findings — The interest parameter in CEX funding formulas is mathematically unnecessary. dYdX v4 operates with I = 0 and produces a funding distribution distinct from CEX platforms (Cohen's d = 0.782 at native cadence, 0.703 cadence-matched; Kolmogorov-Smirnov D = 0.506). Hyperliquid — a DEX using the CEX formula — clusters with CEX. Formula structure rather than exchange architecture governs the riba dimension of the Shariah classification. Originality/value — The first empirically validated framework demonstrating that the riba component of perpetual futures funding is structurally removable, correcting an error of extrapolation in Islamic finance scholarship that treated a single CEX implementation as representative of the entire instrument class. Ownership (qabdh) and delivery-intent are scoped as open questions for cash-settled synthetic perpetuals. Research limitations/implications — The empirical sample covers a single 365-day period; extension to additional time windows would strengthen external validity. Practical implications — The taxonomy provides a screening tool for Shariah boards, fund managers, and exchange designers evaluating Shariah-compliant perpetual futures instruments.

Maha S. Almubarak

This study examines whether the launch of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is associated with a persistent reconfiguration of Bitcoin's second-moment dynamics, extending beyond the short-run announcement effects documented in prior event studies. Using a multi-method empirical framework on daily data from 2020 to 2026 and a sustained twenty-eight-month post-event window, we document a durable transformation of volatility, persistence, and tail risk rather than a transitory announcement response. While Chow, HAC-Wald, Andrews sup-F, and PELT procedures fail to reject mean stability, annualized volatility declines by approximately 19% to 28% across estimators, with close-to-close, Parkinson, and Garman-Klass measures all yielding statistically significant reductions. EGARCH(1,1,1) estimates indicate that the implied half-life of volatility shocks shortens from approximately 45 to 12 trading days, with a complementary GJR-GARCH specification yielding a post-IBIT half-life of approximately 25 days; both specifications point to a substantial acceleration of shock dissipation. Extreme downside exposure, measured by 1% Value-at-Risk and Expected Shortfall, compresses by approximately 44%, with bootstrap inference confirming statistical significance. At the portfolio level, Bitcoin's marginal contribution to tail risk declines by approximately three-quarters at standard allocation weights. Non-parametric ICSS variance-break detection identifies no discrete break within thirty days of the launch, consistent with a gradual regime adjustment rather than an instantaneous structural switch. Robustness tests using weekly returns, exclusion of the April 2024 halving window, and alternative breakpoints confirm the findings. The results contribute to the literature on cryptocurrency risk dynamics by documenting a coincident compression in Bitcoin's second-moment characteristics around the spot ETF era, a pattern distinct from the volatility responses previously documented for derivative-based products. In contrast to short-window event-study evidence, the compression is shown to persist and to extend into the tail of the return distribution and the portfolio risk budget, dimensions outside the scope of an announcement-window design.

Kenneth Chibueze

This paper examines the transformative potential of Distributed Ledger Technology (“DLT”) in bridging the massive infrastructure funding gap in emerging markets. Traditional project finance relies on complex, high-friction syndicated loan structures and equity distributions that often exclude smaller institutional investors and lack secondary market liquidity. The Bank for International Settlements defined tokenisation as the process of generating and recording a digital representation of traditional assets on a programmable platform. By tokenizing infrastructure assets, project sponsors can democratize access to capital and automate revenue distribution via Smart Contracts. However, this transition faces significant legal hurdles. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the existing regulatory landscape, focusing on the Investments and Securities Act 2025 (“ISA 2025”) and the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (“CAMA 2020”) . It interrogates whether infrastructure tokens should be classified as securities, the enforceability of decentralized collateral registries, and the legal standing of automated waterfall payments in bankruptcy scenarios. The paper concludes by proposing a model regulatory sandbox framework designed to provide legal certainty for developers while maintaining robust investor protections.

Michael Neubert, Wolfgang Rams, Patrick Gruhn

This review synthesizes the emerging literature on behavioral finance in cryptocurrency perpetual futures and perpetual swaps. It uses a constrained systematic review of accessible repositories, publisher pages, and citation trails for studies published or posted from January 2021 to April 2026. The synthesis separates 13 direct perpetual-futures studies from 6 adjacent behavioral studies that inform interpretation. The central question is how behavioral mechanisms shape trading, pricing, and market quality in perpetual futures markets. The strongest direct evidence concerns speculative demand and basis risk, leverage choice and liquidation risk, funding-rate carry and arbitrage behavior, informed trading and market quality, and exchange-design effects across centralized and decentralized venues. Direct evidence on classic behavioral constructs such as fear of missing out, overconfidence, disposition effects, and learning remains sparse in perpetual-specific settings. Three conclusions stand out. First, perpetuals are behaviorally distinctive because funding fees, leverage, mark-to-market margining, and auto-liquidation create a high-frequency feedback system between prices and trader positions. Second, the strongest causal evidence indicates that perpetual contracts increase spot-market trading volume but worsen adverse-selection conditions when informed trading rises around funding windows. Third, exchange design matters because inverse, linear, quanto, oracle-priced, and VAMM-based contracts expose traders to different incentives and liquidation dynamics. The most important research gaps concern trader-level identification, CEX-DEX comparisons using comparable data, contract-type heterogeneity, and causal tests of leverage-rule changes.

Seungju Lee, Jaewook Lee

Spot Bitcoin ETFs, approved in January 2024, trade only during NYSE hours but track an asset that trades around the clock. We study whether this mismatch affects Bitcoin's intraday risk profile using a symmetric one-year difference-in-differences design on hourly Coinbase data. The aggregate US-hour effect is null, but hour-specific and sub-hourly decomposition reveals a volatility spike concentrated in the first 30 minutes of ETF trading (9:30-10:00 ET), the only window surviving multiple testing correction. The pre-open half-hour (9:00-9:30) is insignificant, a pattern more consistent with order flow at the open than with anticipatory positioning. Quantile analysis shows left-tail deepening at the 5th and 10th percentiles of US-hour returns while the median is unaffected, and both tails widen at the opening window. Trading volume surges at both NYSE open and close, but only the open generates a volatility spike, and an ETH/USD comparison on the same exchange, which lacked comparable ETF exposure, shows no similar pattern, together supporting a BTC-ETF-specific interpretation. The findings suggest that clock-bound financial instruments can reshape when risk concentrates in continuous markets.

Ushaa Eswaran, Vivek Eswaran, Keerthna Murali, Vishal Eswaran

No abstract is available for this record.

Vishal V. Mahale, Kshitija S. Gholap, Harshada D. Patil, Maya B. Bhor · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Mark Urusov

Decentralized finance liquidity providers (LPs) who use their Uniswap v3 positions as collateral on lending platforms such as Aave often face liquidations because these platforms rely on fixed Loan-to-Value (LTV) rules. These rules do not account for Impermanent Loss which can increase rapidly when asset prices move outside an LP's chosen price range. To address this, we simulated Uniswap v3 LP positions using historical ETH/USD price data and compared the standard fixed-LTV lending model with a hybrid risk-management framework that incorporates stress testing and dynamic exposure reduction. Under the conventional 65% LTV model, liquidations were frequent, with 39,649 liquidation events observed over roughly a decade of daily price data (2015-2025). The proposed framework reduced liquidations by 97.66% while maintaining healthier collateral positions, achieving this through adaptive reductions in effective leverage rather than full liquidation. These findings suggest that incorporating impermanent loss-aware risk controls into DeFi lending protocols could significantly reduce liquidations while keeping leveraged positions safer through periods of volatility. By combining the accessibility of DeFi with the risk management techniques used in traditional finance, lending platforms can become more stable and efficient, benefiting liquidity providers.

José Antonio Siqueira Pontes, Clara Coelho Mangolin

Abstract: Access to financial resources by individuals, corporations, and governments must undergo impact assessments concerning human rights. Public and private governance bodies exert influence over the global financial landscape, ensuring compliance with frameworks such as the UN’s 2030 SDGs through the "Equator Principles" and the "Principles for Responsible Investment." The article aims to analyze the effects of digital tools on responsible financing, such as through the decentralization of financial systems for credit access. It explores the use of artificial intelligence (AI) integrated into "smart contracts," the consumer credit market, especially on peer-to-peer lending platforms, and other fintech solutions for achieving ESG goals like poverty reduction. However, the use of AI and "smart contracts" may also pose risks to human rights. The primary approach involves reviewing international literature to identify emerging risks. The expected outcome is a comprehensive analysis of recent trends and challenges related to corporate social responsibility in the financial sector, particularly regarding human rights in the digital era.

Rahma Almheiri

This undergraduate capstone thesis examines the challenges and opportunities associated with the regulation and adoption of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) in the United Arab Emirates. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of regulatory documents, academic literature, and 13 semi-structured interviews with DeFi practitioners—including smart contract developers, compliance/AML experts, product managers, and blockchain specialists—the study investigates how the UAE’s multi-jurisdictional framework (VARA, ADGM, CBUAE, and SCA) shapes institutional confidence and market participation. Key findings reveal structural challenges stemming from DeFi’s decentralized, borderless, and pseudonymous nature, such as the absence of a central “off switch,” enforcement difficulties with KYC/AML and the FATF Travel Rule, consumer risks from smart-contract vulnerabilities and low financial literacy, and regulatory fragmentation across emirates. At the same time, experts identify substantial opportunities in cheaper cross-border remittances, real-world asset tokenization, SME financing through automated lending pools, and the UAE’s positioning as a global fintech hub. The research supports the thesis that greater regulatory clarity and enforcement coherence causally influence institutional confidence and the trajectory of DeFi adoption. It concludes with actionable policy recommendations—including targeted regulatory sandboxes, RegTech investment, on-chain accountability mechanisms, innovation-linked incentives, and mutual recognition agreements—to help the UAE balance innovation with consumer protection and financial stability.

М.К. Чижова

This paper examines the transformation of the interest rate transmission mechanism under the conditions of rapid financial digitalization. The emergence of new financial intermediaries, decentralized finance (DeFi), digital lending platforms, and the growing role of big data and algorithmic pricing are reshaping how changes in the central bank policy rate affect the real economy. The research identifies novel transmission channels, including digital funding channels, crypto-asset price channels, and algorithmic expectation channels, while highlighting the risks of transmission fragmentation and uneven pass-through across sectors. The study concludes with policy recommendations for central banks to adapt their monetary policy strategies to the high-tech financial landscape.

Prateek Sharma

Tokenized deposits settle continuously and nearly instantaneously, but faster withdrawal execution compresses the coordination game among depositors and increases funding fragility even for solvent banks. This paper examines how disclosure design interacts with settlement speed to determine run risk and welfare in tokenized banking environments. We compare conventional disclosure with verifiable compliance disclosure implemented via Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), which allow banks to certify regulatory liquidity compliance without revealing precise balance sheet positions. ZKP disclosure eliminates coordination-driven runs on compliant banks by pooling institutions near the regulatory threshold, at the cost of weaker market discipline as sophisticated depositors acquire less private information. A calibrated simulation using FDIC call report data for large US commercial banks, including the five Cari Network members, quantifies run probabilities and welfare across settlement speeds and depositor compositions. Tokenization without enhanced disclosure amplifies fragility; combining fast settlement with verifiable compliance disclosure improves welfare, particularly for retail-oriented funding bases. Disclosure architecture is not ancillary to tokenized deposit regulation, it is central to it.

Bhakti Parashar, Sandeep Kautish, Vaibhav Parashar

No abstract is available for this record.

Manju Bhardwaj, Shweta Sankhwar, Ojasvi Yadav, Rinkal Bhadauria · 6 authors

Over the past decade, decentralized digital currencies have gained prominence in finance and technology, but their growth has also drawn adversaries exploiting security vulnerabilities. This paper reviews the literature on cryptocurrency and security using bibliometric analysis of Web of Science and Scopus articles published between 2013 and May 2025. Tools such as Biblioshiny and VOSviewer were employed to explore key trends, influential contributors, collaborative networks, and emerging themes. A novel contribution of this study is the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) to address inconsistent affiliation formats, enabling accurate identification of leading academic organizations. The results demonstrate that LLM-based harmonization effectively prevents misrepresentation in bibliometric datasets. Overall, this study not only summarizes evolving research trends in cryptocurrency and security but also highlights the potential of LLMs to enhance bibliometric methods, suggesting broader applications for improving the accuracy and reliability of future scholarly analyses.

D. M. B. M. Dissanayake, R. L. Karunaweera, P. A. U. D. Herath, P. H. P. Jayathilaka · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Adaobi Ndukaji

The tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) represents one of the most transformative applications of blockchain technology in modern financial markets. By converting tangible and intangible assets such as real estate, commodities, private equity, intellectual property, and infrastructure into blockchain-based digital tokens, tokenization enables fractional ownership, enhanced liquidity, programmability, and borderless capital formation. This paper examines how RWA tokenization is reshaping entrepreneurial finance by lowering barriers to entry for both founders and investors, expanding access to global capital pools, and fostering new hybrid models of decentralized and regulated finance. Drawing on developments within the broader blockchain ecosystem, decentralized finance (DeFi), and emerging regulatory frameworks, the study evaluates technological architecture, economic implications, governance mechanisms, risk considerations, and policy challenges. The paper argues that RWA tokenization has the potential to democratize entrepreneurial finance by enhancing inclusion and efficiency, while also introducing new systemic, legal, and ethical complexities that require coordinated regulatory innovation.

Anthony Chidi Nzomiwu, Francisca Uzooyibo Okoye, Benedict Iyke Okoronkwo

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) face a persistent financing gap globally, estimated at significant portions of GDP in emerging markets like Nigeria, while facing different structural barriers in developed economies like Poland. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) offers theoretical solutions through peer-to-peer lending and tokenized assets, yet pure DeFi adoption remains low among SMEs due to regulatory uncertainty, technical complexity, and volatility. This paper employs Institutional Theory (North, 1990) and Ozili's (2023) tripartite framework of regulation, infrastructure, and capacity to compare the Nigerian and Polish contexts. Drawing on a synthesis of recent literature (2018-2026), the study argues that "pure" DeFi is ill-suited for immediate SME adoption in either context. Instead, a "Hybrid Finance" model where regulated fintech intermediaries bridge traditional banking and blockchain protocols offers the most viable pathway. The analysis highlights Nigeria's reactive regulatory stance (e.g., the 2021 ban and subsequent lifting) versus Poland's adaptive integration within the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. The paper concludes that institutional embedding, rather than technological disruption alone, is critical for closing the SME financing gap.

Tomiwa Sunday Adebayo, Dervis Kirikkaleli

This study assesses whether Bitcoin’s linkage with AI equities remains robust after accounting for equity risk sentiment. To this end, the study employs the multiscale quantile‐on‐quantile correlation (MSQQC) and multiscale quantile‐on‐quantile partial correlation (MSQQPC) approaches, using daily data covering 02/01/2019–16/06/2025. The results indicate that BTC–AI comovement is strongly state‐ and frequency‐dependent rather than stable across the joint distribution or across horizons. In the high‐frequency band, dependence is weak and only intermittently significant, with localised negative regions around BTC ≈ 0.20 with AI ≈ 0.30–0.50 and BTC ≈ 0.30 with AI ≈ 0.70. In the mid‐frequency band, significance concentrates in the tails, showing negative dependence under downside stress conditions such as BTC ≈ 0.10–0.30 with AI ≈ 0.10, alongside sign changes when BTC is in upper‐tail states. In the low‐frequency band, dependence becomes broadly positive and significant across most quantile combinations, with limited decoupling when AI is highly elevated (≈ 0.80–0.90) and BTC is also in upper quantiles (≈ 0.70–0.90). Importantly, conditioning on VIX and VVIX does not materially alter these patterns, suggesting that sentiment influences segments of short‐run dependence but does not overturn the longer‐run BTC–AI linkage. The study derives policy recommendations from these findings.

Vinay Kumar Kasula, Santosh Reddy Addula, Supraja Ayyamgari, Chaitanya Tumma

No abstract is available for this record.

Amelia Lo, Clarie Ku

No abstract is available for this record.

Syed sajjad Shah

This research assesses the key blockchain infrastructures utilized in decentralized finance, tokenized asset markets, institutional settlement systems, and the development of new digital financial ecosystems. The paper focuses on both Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, emphasizing aspects such as scalability, institutional uptake, privacy frameworks, transaction traceability, and alignment with regulations. Data sourced from credible industry publications, official institutional announcements, and peer-reviewed research suggests that Ethereum remains the leading platform for decentralized finance and tokenized asset infrastructure. In contrast, Solana has shown significant institutional growth through stablecoin settlements, tokenized real-world assets, and enterprise collaborations. Chains that prioritize privacy are increasingly facing regulatory challenges due to anti-money laundering (AML) obligations. The study concludes that hybrid blockchain models, which integrate public settlement with compliance frameworks, are the primary pathway for adoption within the financial sector.

Sai Srikanth Madugula, jose Luis de la Rosa Esteva, Daya Shankar

This paper presents an integrated framework for decentralized invoice-backed loan underwriting combining interpretable machine learning, dynamic pricing algorithms, and on-chain trust infrastructure. We develop and validate SHAP-explainable ML models for real-time default probability assessment, design a Reverse Kelly AMM smart contract for optimal risk-adjusted loan pricing, integrate ERC-725 identity and on-chain reputation scoring with an automated insurance reserve, and deploy the system on Ethereum testnet with end-to-end functional and security testing. Stress testing across simulated default and fraud scenarios demonstrates the model achieves AUC-ROC of 0.89 on validation data, maintains LP yields of 12–18% under normal conditions while containing non-performing loan ratios below 3% under adverse scenarios, and sustains reserve solvency across 95th percentile stress events. The framework addresses critical gaps in DeFi lending by bridging regulatory interpretability requirements with decentralized credit assessment, demonstrating both technical feasibility and economic viability for permissionless SME financing at scale.