個案總覽

As a digital value-management tool, the blockchain is often considered to be the financial infrastructure for the digital economy. Unsurprisingly, lending and borrowing markets have emerged within this ecosystem. Initially, centralized services led by trading platforms dominated the market, followed by decentralized solutions that use the blockchain's ability to execute code. The authors share findings from their research, which explored how incentive programs offered by lending protocols to attract users are impacting the deposits and loans. Among their key findings: While 'liquidity mining' programs effectively draw activity to their platforms, a considerable fraction of that activity is 'phantom'-created by users that are exploiting rewards from both sides of the market.

With shocking turns of events such as the FTX fiasco, market participants need to be fully aware of the risks and opportunities that Blockchain-based trading presents. The author, who studies financial innovation for a living at the University of Toronto, presents what everyone should know about centralized and decentralized trading platforms. Defining everything from wallets to crypto-wash-trading and tax-loss harvesting, he argues that there are two possible futures: One is that some immensely popular non-financial applications emerge. The other is that, over time, most traditional financial assets - including fiat money and property registries - are either tokenized or directly re-issued as new vehicles on blockchains so that they can be listed, used and transferred without borders. For all of the issues he identifies, he maintains that blockchain-based trading holds enormous promise.