Fundamental Pricing of Utility Tokens

Julien Prat (1, 2) , Vincent Danos (3, 2) , Stefania Marcassa (4, 5)

1 CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique
2 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
3 DI-ENS - Département d'informatique - ENS Paris
4 THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications
5 UCP - Université de Cergy Pontoise

We explain how to evaluate the fundamental price of utility tokens. Our model endogenizes the velocity of circulation of tokens and yields a pricing formula that is fully microfounded. According to our approach, tokens are valuable because they have to be immediately accessible when the platform service is needed, a requirement that is reminiscent of the cash-in-advance constraint in the theory of money.

Mots clés: Asset pricing; utility tokens; Blockchain; ICOs JEL CODE: G12; G24

Domaines: Economies et finances; Informatique [cs]

Julien Prat, Vincent Danos, Stefania Marcassa. Fundamental Pricing of Utility Tokens. 2021. ⟨hal-03096267⟩