Series: Occasional Papers. 2411.
Author: José Manuel Carbó, Hossein Jahanshahloo and José Carlos Piqueras.
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Summary
The crypto asset market has seen notable growth in recent years, along with changes in its value. This expansion, along with its increasingly high integration into traditional monetary and financial systems, has raised the potential risks for the economy. However, monitoring this activity is not easy due to the decentralized nature of how it works and the lack of reporting requirements for operations. In order to better understand the available data on crypto assets, this paper looks at different information sources, focusing on Bitcoin, the most well-known crypto asset. We look at two types of data: direct data from the Bitcoin blockchain, and third-party data from exchange platforms, information aggregators and specialized service companies. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of both types of data when it comes to issues important to financial authorities. While blockchain analysis has the advantage of being public and reliable, addressing issues such as money laundering or financial stability requires additional third-party data, with the associated risks this entails.