УДК 51-77

Elena Maskhutovna Nadyrova, 2-year master student of educational program «International Finance (in English)», International Finance faculty, The Federal State-Funded Educational Institution of Higher Education «The Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation» (The  Financial University)

E-mail: ddasamm@mail.ru 

The development of a new technological mode led to the emergence of a new concept – «cryptocurrency». The purpose of the study is to reveal its economic essence by determining key influence factors. Methods used are description, analysis, modeling, hypothetical and ideographic methods. Relevance of the study is proved by modern growing trends at cryptocurrency markets and appearance of the draft on Federal Law «On digital assets» in Russia. 

The author suggested definition of the cryptocurency using asset approach. It was substantiated by analysis of main money functions on the example of Bitcoin (BTC) according to Marx and marginal utility school. Its economic benefits are expressed in the return received through a rise in price. Bitcoin also fits the definition of an investment asset. 

Analysis of the BTC exchange rate proved that the cryptocurrency market, like many others, is influenced by news background. Moreover, fifteen other factors were analyzed and regression model was made that passed statistical tests. Only 3 explanatory variables – number of transactions, Google queries for BTC and Wikipedia BTC page views – were significant with coefficient of determination about 95%. Empirical results confirmed that traditional macroeconomic indicators do not influence the rate and no standard market model is suitable for predicting it.

Keywords: cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin, exchange rate, regression.

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