# Applying Artificial Intelligence in Cryptocurrency Markets: A Survey
## 2 Cryptocurrency Markets
### A Short Background on Cryptocurrencies
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l} \hline \hline
**Headers** & **Attributes and Definitions** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**Crypto statistical info**} & **Total circulation of crypto:** the total number of mined cryptocurrency coins \\  & **Crypto price:** the price of the coin \\  & **Market capitalisation:** the total value of cryptocurrency in circulation \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**Block info**} & **Blockchain size:** total size of the blockchain \\  & **Avg. block size:** average block size for the past 24 h \\  & **Avg. trans per block:** average number of transactions per block for \\  & the last 24 h \\  & **Avg. payments per block:** the average number of payments per block \\  & for last 24 h \\  & **Total no. of trans:** the total number of transactions on blockchain \\  & **Median (avg.) confirmation time:** the median (avg.) time for a mined \\  & block to be added to the public ledger \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**Mining info**} & **Total hash rate:** the estimated number of terahashes per second \\  & **Hash rate distribution:** an estimation of hash rate distribution \\  & amongst the largest mining pools \\ \cline{1-1}  & **Network difficulty:** the difficulty of mining a new block \\ \cline{1-1}  & **Miners revenue:** total value of cryptocurrency block rewards and \\ \cline{1-1}  & transaction fees paid to miners \\ \cline{1-1}  & **Total transaction fee** \\ \cline{1-1}  & **Fees per transaction:** average transaction fees per transaction \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Information attributes of a blockchain system for cryptocurrencies. two popular commodities that have been saved throughout history due to their ability to store value. A unit of account is a monetary unit that can measure the value of other assets or products. Although cryptocurrencies can technically fulfil the monetary role of medium of exchange, they are not currently capable of performing two other monetary roles [21]. From a regulatory standpoint, the regulation should not target cryptocurrencies, as there are several practical constraints for regulating this decentralised open-source ecosystem. In other words, the centralised command-and-control approach of traditional regulation may not succeed in decentralised cryptocurrencies. Instead, regulations seem to aim at the interface between financial associations and cryptocurrencies [22]. Regarding the decentralised function, financial institutions are the essential intermediaries that control and facilitate financial transactions in a centralised economic system. However, these institutions can dominate financial activities when they grow and impose disproportionate market power. On the contrary, decentralised platforms reduce transaction costs and eliminate the monopoly power of any entity by creating effective decentralised peer-to-peer networks [23]. Moreover, the uniqueness of cryptocurrencies is based on three distinct features, namely, anonymity, decentralisation (no central authority), and double-spending attack protection [24]. However, even with these different characteristics, there is still ambiguity between electronic money and cryptocurrency. The European Central Bank (ECB) has provided a clear distinction between virtual and electronic currencies, presented in Table 2 based on [25]. In particular, virtual money is different from electronic money considering its format, acceptance, legal status, issuer, and so forth. Bitcoin is the most popular and well-established cryptocurrency and a de facto standard in cryptocurrency markets. However, there are nearly 17,000 other cryptocurrencies called altcoins, which have around 50% of the total market capitalisation. Figure 2 shows the market capitalisation of the top ten cryptocurrencies in January 2022 based on CoinMarketCap (www.coinmarketcap.com). This figure shows BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, USDC, SOL, ADA, XRP, LUNA, and DOT, which stand for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Binance coin, USD coin, Solana, Cardano, Ripple, Terra, and Polkadot.