Despite the rise in the bitcoin rate and interest from institutional investors, according to analysts from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the asset is still subject to systemic risks.
In their research, NBER analysts write that the Bitcoin ecosystem is still “dominated by large and concentrated players, be they large miners, investors or exchanges.”
“This concentration of assets in a small number of hands makes bitcoin vulnerable to systemic risks, and also speaks of a disproportionate distribution of profits in the event of widespread adoption of bitcoin,” researchers Igor Makarov and Antoinette Schoar note.
According to the NBER, the top 10,000 bitcoin holders currently own 27% of the 18.6 million BTC in circulation on the market. A similar picture is observed among miners. 10% of miners control over 90% of the Bitcoin hashrate. At the same time, 0.1% (about 50 companies) control half of the hash rate.
By systemic risks, researchers mean the possibility of a 51% attack, when large miners can concentrate more than half of the network hashrate. Such miners will be able to independently conduct or cancel transactions in their favor. And the owners of a large number of coins can directly influence the value of bitcoin on exchanges.
At the same time, analysts admit that concentration data may not be entirely accurate, since many addresses may well belong to one owner. For example, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, can control up to 20,000 different addresses with coins mined in the first time, more than 1 million BTC in total.
Earlier, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England John Cunliffe urged international regulators to develop rules for regulating cryptocurrencies as soon as possible out of fears that the cryptoasset market could collapse.
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