Fig. 2

Historical series of crisis versus Δ% btc price. The biggest change in the number of online news stories about an economic crisis—a 99% increase from one week to the next—occurred during the week of June 28, 2015. According to G1 (2018), Greece had failed to pay part of its indebtedness to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In addition, the country declared a bank holiday and limited electronic withdrawals to no more than €60 a day. A rather pessimistic scenario developed with the increasing probability that Greece would adopt capital controls and possibly leave the European Union. The country’s exit would result in a devaluation of the euro, probable default on Greek debt, an increase in investor mistrust regarding the economic future of the emerging countries. Concurrent with the Greek crisis and subsequent to the peak news date, Bitcoin price increased for three consecutive weeks, a 17% appreciation. Brokers around the world reported a sudden upsurge in computer operations originating in Greece, with China's LakeBTC experiencing a 40% increase in Greek participation on its platform (Pagliery, 2018). Such an increase was not limited to Greece. The brokerage firm, BTC.sx, reported an increase in the number of operations coming from the Eurozone (Kwan, 2018). According to Grendan O'Connor, CEO of the electronic platform Genesis Trading, the Greek crisis appeared to be the only relevant factor in the bitcoin price increase. He added that the firm’s trading desk raises the price of virtual currencies in cases of macroeconomic events that are detrimental to the main sovereign currencies (Rosenfeld, 2018).