Workshops > Workshop on Fintech

This workshop will allow researchers and practitioners discuss and exchange with colleagues from around the world in the field of Fintech, with special emphasize on crypto-assets. All areas of Fintech are eligible, and special sessions on the following topic will be held:

Crypto-Asset Markets during the Crypto Winter

Chairs: Prof. Denis Schweizer (John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, CA), Prof. Larisa Yarovaya (Southampton Business School, UK) & Prof. Jean-Michel Sahut (IDRAC, FR)

Crypto winter refers to a period when crypto-asset prices decline sharply and remain low for an extended period accompanied with a negative sentiment and uncertainty about a future recovery of crypto-asset prices. Crypto winters are recurring phenomenon, like the equivalent bear market for stocks. The last Crypto winter started in January 2018 and lasted until about December 2020, which marked the turnaround for soaring crypto-asset prices resulting in new all-time highs for e.g. Bitcoin in November 2021. With the expectation of increases in interest rates and the start of Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022 most risk assets, including crypto-assets, started to decline in value. The decline in crypto-asset values was even accelerated after the TerraUSD / Luna June, Celsius Network, as well as FTX collapses in May, June and November 2022. During the current crypto winter starting at the all-time high in crypto-asset market capitalization of about $3 trillion in November 2021, the market declined to about $800 billion by end of 2022.

The negative effects of the crypto winter are not limited to the holders of crypto-assets. Major projects in the crypto-asset space, including Gemini, Coinbase OpenSea, Crypto.com, have laid off a significant portion of their workforce. However, the crypto-winter also provides opportunities for high quality projects to concentrate on developing their products and services without managing rapid growth at the same time. Furthermore, crypto projects are on the radar screen of many venture capital funds seeing an opportunity to invest during periods of comparably low valuation levels and thus providing external financing. Bitcoin miners have difficulties paying electrical bills, because of the comparably low Bitcoin prices, which caused publicly listed Bitcoin miners, such as Core Scientific to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This gives professional Bitcoin miners the opportunity to develop sustainable Bitcoin mining business models, which do not depend on fossil energies and instead foster renewable energy sources. Governments can also catch-up with the dynamic industry and work on proper regulation and or oversight.

The previous as well as the current crypto winter brought forwards fundamental questions that will be addressed in this special issue. We welcome the submission of research papers on the following topics:

• New sustainable business models in the crypto-asset space
• Venture capital dynamics during crypto-asset market cycles
• Profitable Bitcoin mining during the crypto winter
• Policy and regulation of crypto exchanges, stable coins etc.
• Crypto-assets and the impact on energy consumption and carbon footprint
• Successful trading strategies during the crypto winter
• How to DeFi during the crypto winter
• Challenges for Web3 
• Predicting crypto winters and cycles
• Differences in behavioural patterns during different crypto-market cycles
• The role of institutional investors in different crypto-market cycles
• Risk management (e.g. regulatory, volatility, extreme risk, custodial) during crypto winters
• NFTs developments during the crypto winter

 Contact the chairperson to submit your paper to this workshop: denis.schweizer@concordia.ca