Cryptoasset networks: Flows and regular players in Bitcoin and XRP

Abstract

Cryptoassets flow among players as recorded in the ledger of blockchain for all the transactions, comprising a network of players as nodes and flows as edges. The last decade, on the other hand, has witnessed repeating bubbles and crashes of the price of cryptoassets in exchange markets with fiat currencies and other cryptos. We study the relationship between these two important aspects of dynamics, one in the bubble/crash of price and the other in the daily network of crypto, by investigating Bitcoin and XRP. We focus on “regular players” who frequently appear on a weekly basis during a period of time including bubble/crash, and quantify each player’s role with respect to outgoing and incoming flows by defining flow-weighted frequency. During the most significant period of one-year starting from the winter of 2017, we discovered the structure of three groups of players in the diagram of flow-weighted frequency, which is common to Bitcoin and XRP in spite of the different nature of the two cryptos. By examining the identity and business activity of some regular players in the case of Bitcoin, we can observe different roles of them, namely the players balancing surplus and deficit of cryptoassets (Bal-branch), those accumulating the cryptoassets (In-branch), and those reducing it (Out-branch). Using this information, we found that the regime switching among Bal-, In-, Out-branches was presumably brought about by the regular players who are not necessarily dominant and stable in the case of Bitcoin, while such players are simply absent in the case of XRP. We further discuss how one can understand the temporal transitions among the three branches.