A Primer on Bitcoin Cross-Border Flows: Measurement and Drivers

Download or read book A Primer on Bitcoin Cross-Border Flows: Measurement and Drivers written by Eugenio Cerutti and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2024-04-05 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rapid growth of crypto assets raises important questions about their cross-border usage. To gain a better understanding of cross-border Bitcoin flows, we use raw data covering both on-chain (on the Bitcoin blockchain) and off-chain (outside the Bitcoin blockchain) transactions globally. We provide a detailed description of available methodologies and datasets, and discuss the crucial assumptions behind the quantification of cross-border flows. We then present novel stylized facts about Bitcoin cross-border flows and study their global and domestic drivers. Bitcoin cross-border flows respond differently than capital flows to traditional drivers of capital flows, and differences appear between on-chain and off-chain Bitcoin cross-border flows. Off-chain cross-border flows seem correlated with incentives to avoid capital flow restrictions.