Token-Based Platform Finance

We thank the anonymous referee, Patrick Bolton, Markus Brunnermeier, Peter DeMarzo, Darrell Duffie, Daniel Ferreira (discussant), Sebastian Gryglewicz (discussant), Zhiguo He, Wei Jiang, Andrew Karolyi, Maureen O’Hara, Dmitry Orlov (discussant), Emiliano S. Pagnotta (discussant), Christine Parlour, Uday Rajan, Jean-Charles Rochet, Fahad Saleh (discussant), David Skeie (discussant), Michael Sockin (discussant), René Stulz, Pierre-Olivier Weill, Ying Wu, Miao Zhang, and conference/seminar participants at ABFER/CEPR/CUHK Financial Economics Symposium, AFA 2020, Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business, Central Bank Research Association 2019, CEPR ESSFM Gerzensee, Chicago Financial Institutions Conference, City University of Hong Kong, Cleveland Fed/OFR Financial Stability Conference, Cornell University, Econometric Society North America 2019, Erasmus Liquidity Conference, International Monetary Fund, Luohan Academy Digital Economy Conference, Maastricht University, Macro Finance Society 14th Meeting, Midwest Finance Association 2019, Online Digital-Economy Seminar (Hong Kong Baptist U, Monash University, National Taiwan U, Renmin U), SFS Cavalcade North America 2020, Ohio State University (Finance), Stevens Institute of Technology, Tokenomics International Conference on Blockchain Economics, Rome Junior Finance Conference, Security and Protocols, University of British Columbia (Econ), University of Calgary Haskayne School of Business, University of Florida, USI Lugano, and University of Washington Bothell (Econ) for helpful comments. We also thank Desheng Ma and Yu Wang for their research assistance. Will is grateful for the financial support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Ye is grateful for the financial support from Studienzentrum Gerzensee. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors. The paper subsumes results from previous drafts titled “Token-Based Corporate Finance” and “Tokenomics and Platform Finance.” The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• September 8, 2020