Conceptualizing Crimes on the Cryptocurrency Markets

• In Event: Euroc: Crimes and regulation in the financial and cryptocurrency markets

Abstract

ne of the unique features of cryptocurrency markets is the significant participation of retail investors compared to institutional investors. While institutional participation has risen significantly, retail investors still constitute a major portion of the market: roughly 60% of cryptocurrency investments are attributed to retail investors, with the remaining 40% held by institutional investors. Therefore, the behaviour of retail investors will continue to have a significant impact of liquidity, price finding and volatility. The emerging sociological and anthropological literature on crypto communities has demonstrated the ideological and normative aspects of crypto investing, arguing that it cannot be described solely with rational or boundedly rational models of action within economics. Within criminology, Dulisse et al. persuasively argue that victimization in cases of investment fraud is closely connected to the subcultural attachment of crypto investors.
The paper argues that the these unique characteristics of cryptocurrency markets pose significant challenges for cryptocurrency regulation, especially anti-fraud regulation. The paper concentrates on more theoretical issues about how expectations about general behavior of the subjects of regulation shapes regulatory strategies. Using crypto reguliation as an example, it argues for a wider consideration of market culture while shaping regulatory strategies.

Author

• Csaba Győry, ELTE University Faculty of Law, Budapest /Institute of Legal Studies, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences