Is Bitcoin business income or speculative bubble? Unconditional vs. conditional frequency domain analysis

The present study addresses one of the most problematic phenomena: Bitcoin price. We explore the Granger causality for two relationships (Bitcoin price and transactions; Bitcoin price and investors’ attractiveness) from a frequency domain perspective using Breitung and Candelon’s (2006) approach. Intuitively, this research gauges empirically the causal links between these variables unconditionally on the one hand and conditionally to the Chinese stock market and the processing power of Bitcoin network on the other hand. The observed outcomes reveal some differences with respect to the frequencies involved, highlighting the complexity of assessing what Bitcoin looks like and the difficulty to gain clearer insights into this nascent crypto-currency. Beyond the nuances of short-, medium- and long-run frequencies, this paper confirms the extremely speculative nature of Bitcoin without neglecting its usefulness in economic reasons (trade transactions). The consideration of the Chinese market index and the hash rate has led to solid and unambiguous findings connecting further Bitcoin to speculation.