Abstract:
Investing in cryptocurrencies has received increasing interest from entities
and governments over the past years. In this thesis, we studied the basic concepts of
money and the functions of money, as well as a comparison between digital currency
and traditional currency, the concept of cryptocurrencies, their types and date of
emergence, their features, the basics of cryptocurrencies, the benefits of trading in
them, the main players in cryptocurrencies, elements of cryptocurrencies, The
cryptocurrency mining mechanism was also explained.
The technology of the blockchain, its types and benefits and how to use the
blockchain when trading cryptocurrencies has been studied. The mechanism for
regulating cryptocurrencies by governments and countries was discussed, and the
controls imposed by countries and banks for trading in cryptocurrency were clarified.
The most important previous studies that examined the correlation and impact
of cryptocurrencies with financial indicators were reviewed.We have studied the
correlation and the joint effect of the relationship of Bitcoin with weekly time series
data of the leading financial assets over the past ten years.
The multiple linear regression model was applied, as well as the Granger
causality test to study the effect of Bitcoin prices on the most important leading
financial assets. The empirical study shows the existence of a mutual effect of the
price of Bitcoin on some financial assets, this effect is subject to supply and demand
for cryptocurrencies.