In brief
- Recent academic studies have found that Bitcoin price discovery now takes place in derivative markets rather than spot markets.
- Bitcoin prices on regulated derivative markets react to, rather than lead, price movements of unregulated exchanges.
- The introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs has had a positive impact on the wider crypto market, studies found.
Professor Andrew Urquhart is Professor of Finance and Financial Technology and Head of the Department of Finance at Birmingham Business School (BBS).
This is the sixth instalment of the Professor Coin column, in which I bring important insights from published academic literature on cryptocurrencies to the Decrypt readership. In this article, we’ll investigate cryptocurrency…
Jun 24 2025
