Since such behavioral elements cannot fully explain the development of Bitcoin, which was most likely largely driven a range of factors, the purpose of this paper is to widen the analysis by taking a macroeconomic, financial and political perspective. As much as commodities, stocks and currency exchange rates are driven by a variety of factors, the paper tries to determine whether the same and/or other factors influence the development of Bitcoin, which can be considered as a speculative unregulated asset.
The paper centers on an empirical study that aims to investigate three dependent variables: Bitcoin prices, trading volume and media buzz. The study uses a range of independent variables from macroeconomics, finance and politics. Data for independent variables are gathered from scientific resources and international public organizations including the European Central Bank (ECB), EUROSTAT, the ifo-institute, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and possibly the World Bank, while Bitcoin prices, trading volumes and media buzz are mainly drawn from publicly accessible internet resources.
Expected results include determining which of the dependent variables, if any, show significant levels of correlation with the dependent variables. Depending on the results, it may be possible to clearly determine the nature of Bitcoin. Expected policy implications would rather relate to financial regulation than monetary policy.