Efficiency, Liquidity and Volatility of Bitcoin Markets

Abstract

Bitcoin is a virtual money and a new payment system which is not regulated by a central authority. Bitcoin became popular quickly and gained the ability of affecting the real economy. Being used extensively and seen as an investment tool, Bitcoin created its own market, users and investors. This study aims to shed light on Bitcoin market. To understand what Bitcoin is, the history of Bitcoin was summarized firstly and the Bitcoin system and how the protocol works was explained. Then Efficiency, Liquidity and Volatility of the Bitcoin Markets were analyzed. We concluded that the pricing of Bitcoin is too complicated; and the Bitcoin market is still vulnerable to many risks and speculation.