9th International Conference on ICT for Sustainable Development

Authors - Srinivas Jangirala, Deepika Chandra Verma, Janardan Krishna Yadav, Shashi Kant Srivastava, Anandadeep Mandal
Abstract - Our paper empirically examines whether policy stance on bitcoin trading affect its actual trading or not. Using data from Coindance on trade volumes of Bitcoins and cryptocurrency policy stance of 45 countries, we find that bans on cryptocurrencies lead to a decline in Bitcoin trade more than any other policy stances, legal (countries that consider cryptocurrency transactions in some legal ambit) and neutral (countries that are silent on the policy stance on cryptocurrencies). Further, we find that where some legal recognition has been given to some form of cryptocurrency trade, it has restricted the trade in comparison to those countries where the regulatory bodies are silent on cryptocurrencies.