IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v104y2021ics0264999321002327.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Returns, volatility and the cryptocurrency bubble of 2017–18

Author

Listed:
  • Cross, Jamie L.
  • Hou, Chenghan
  • Trinh, Kelly

Abstract

Research on cryptocurrencies has focused on price and volatility formation in isolation, however knowledge about their interdependence is important for risk management and asset allocation. We investigate the existence and nature of such a relationship in four commonly traded cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple, during the cryptocurrency bubble of 2017–18. Using a generalized asset pricing model, we find evidence of a risk premium effect in Litecoin and Ripple during the boom of 2017, and that adverse news effects were an important driver of the cryptocurrency crash of 2018 in all four cryptocurrencies. In an out-of-sample forecasting exercise, we find that allowing for stochastic volatility and a heavy tailed distribution provides more accurate return and volatility forecasts compared to a random walk benchmark. This suggests that cryptocurrency markets were not weak-form efficient during this period.

Suggested Citation

  • Cross, Jamie L. & Hou, Chenghan & Trinh, Kelly, 2021. "Returns, volatility and the cryptocurrency bubble of 2017–18," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:104:y:2021:i:c:s0264999321002327
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2021.105643
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999321002327
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2021.105643?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kastner, Gregor & Frühwirth-Schnatter, Sylvia, 2014. "Ancillarity-sufficiency interweaving strategy (ASIS) for boosting MCMC estimation of stochastic volatility models," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 408-423.
    2. Chang, Eric C. & Cheng, Joseph W. & Khorana, Ajay, 2000. "An examination of herd behavior in equity markets: An international perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(10), pages 1651-1679, October.
    3. McCausland, William J. & Miller, Shirley & Pelletier, Denis, 2011. "Simulation smoothing for state-space models: A computational efficiency analysis," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 199-212, January.
    4. Bouri, Elie & Gupta, Rangan & Roubaud, David, 2019. "Herding behaviour in cryptocurrencies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 216-221.
    5. Frühwirth-Schnatter, Sylvia & Wagner, Helga, 2010. "Stochastic model specification search for Gaussian and partial non-Gaussian state space models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 154(1), pages 85-100, January.
    6. Joshua C. C. Chan, 2018. "Specification tests for time-varying parameter models with stochastic volatility," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(8), pages 807-823, September.
    7. Li, Yong & Liu, Xiao-Bin & Yu, Jun, 2015. "A Bayesian chi-squared test for hypothesis testing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 54-69.
    8. Diebold, Francis X & Mariano, Roberto S, 2002. "Comparing Predictive Accuracy," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 134-144, January.
    9. Jiang, Yonghong & Lie, Jiayi & Wang, Jieru & Mu, Jinqi, 2021. "Revisiting the roles of cryptocurrencies in stock markets: A quantile coherency perspective," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 21-34.
    10. Balcilar, Mehmet & Bouri, Elie & Gupta, Rangan & Roubaud, David, 2017. "Can volume predict Bitcoin returns and volatility? A quantiles-based approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 74-81.
    11. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Benlagha, Noureddine & Maouchi, Youcef, 2020. "Investigating the dynamic relationship between cryptocurrencies and conventional assets: Implications for financial investors," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 198-217.
    12. Harvey, Andrew C & Shephard, Neil, 1996. "Estimation of an Asymmetric Stochastic Volatility Model for Asset Returns," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 14(4), pages 429-434, October.
    13. French, Kenneth R. & Schwert, G. William & Stambaugh, Robert F., 1987. "Expected stock returns and volatility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 3-29, September.
    14. Nadarajah, Saralees & Chu, Jeffrey, 2017. "On the inefficiency of Bitcoin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 6-9.
    15. Andersen, Torben G & Bollerslev, Tim, 1998. "Answering the Skeptics: Yes, Standard Volatility Models Do Provide Accurate Forecasts," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(4), pages 885-905, November.
    16. Bouri, Elie & Molnár, Peter & Azzi, Georges & Roubaud, David & Hagfors, Lars Ivar, 2017. "On the hedge and safe haven properties of Bitcoin: Is it really more than a diversifier?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 192-198.
    17. Li, Yong & Zeng, Tao & Yu, Jun, 2014. "A new approach to Bayesian hypothesis testing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 178(P3), pages 602-612.
    18. Yu, Jun, 2005. "On leverage in a stochastic volatility model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 127(2), pages 165-178, August.
    19. Omori, Yasuhiro & Chib, Siddhartha & Shephard, Neil & Nakajima, Jouchi, 2007. "Stochastic volatility with leverage: Fast and efficient likelihood inference," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 425-449, October.
    20. Leopoldo Catania & Stefano Grassi & Francesco Ravazzolo, 2018. "Predicting the Volatility of Cryptocurrency Time�Series," Working Papers No 3/2018, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    21. Baur, Dirk G. & Dimpfl, Thomas, 2018. "Asymmetric volatility in cryptocurrencies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 148-151.
    22. Cheah, Eng-Tuck & Fry, John, 2015. "Speculative bubbles in Bitcoin markets? An empirical investigation into the fundamental value of Bitcoin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 32-36.
    23. Bollerslev, Tim, 1986. "Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 307-327, April.
    24. Leopoldo Catania & Stefano Grassi, 2017. "Modelling Crypto-Currencies Financial Time-Series," CEIS Research Paper 417, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 11 Dec 2017.
    25. Bouri, Elie & Azzi, Georges & Dyhrberg, Anne Haubo, 2017. "On the return-volatility relationship in the Bitcoin market around the price crash of 2013," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 11, pages 1-16.
    26. Parkinson, Michael, 1980. "The Extreme Value Method for Estimating the Variance of the Rate of Return," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 61-65, January.
    27. Urquhart, Andrew, 2016. "The inefficiency of Bitcoin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 80-82.
    28. Christie, Andrew A., 1982. "The stochastic behavior of common stock variances : Value, leverage and interest rate effects," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 407-432, December.
    29. Catania, Leopoldo & Grassi, Stefano & Ravazzolo, Francesco, 2019. "Forecasting cryptocurrencies under model and parameter instability," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 485-501.
    30. Sassan Alizadeh & Michael W. Brandt & Francis X. Diebold, 2002. "Range‐Based Estimation of Stochastic Volatility Models," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(3), pages 1047-1091, June.
    31. Stavroyiannis, Stavros & Babalos, Vassilios, 2019. "Herding behavior in cryptocurrencies revisited: Novel evidence from a TVP model," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 57-63.
    32. Geweke, J, 1993. "Bayesian Treatment of the Independent Student- t Linear Model," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(S), pages 19-40, Suppl. De.
    33. Jacquier, Eric & Polson, Nicholas G. & Rossi, P.E.Peter E., 2004. "Bayesian analysis of stochastic volatility models with fat-tails and correlated errors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 185-212, September.
    34. Qin, Meng & Su, Chi-Wei & Tao, Ran, 2021. "BitCoin: A new basket for eggs?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 896-907.
    35. Geisel, Martin S, 1973. "Bayesian Comparisons of Simple Macroeconomic Models," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 5(3), pages 751-772, August.
    36. Baur, Dirk G. & Hong, KiHoon & Lee, Adrian D., 2018. "Bitcoin: Medium of exchange or speculative assets?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 177-189.
    37. Urom, Christian & Abid, Ilyes & Guesmi, Khaled & Chevallier, Julien, 2020. "Quantile spillovers and dependence between Bitcoin, equities and strategic commodities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 230-258.
    38. Darjus Hosszejni & Gregor Kastner, 2019. "Approaches Toward the Bayesian Estimation of the Stochastic Volatility Model with Leverage," Papers 1901.11491, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2019.
    39. Engle, Robert F, 1982. "Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity with Estimates of the Variance of United Kingdom Inflation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 987-1007, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Chuanhai & Zhang, Zhengjun & Xu, Mengyu & Peng, Zhe, 2023. "Good and bad self-excitation: Asymmetric self-exciting jumps in Bitcoin returns," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. Fan Fang & Carmine Ventre & Michail Basios & Leslie Kanthan & David Martinez-Rego & Fan Wu & Lingbo Li, 2022. "Cryptocurrency trading: a comprehensive survey," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-59, December.
    3. Yousaf, Imran & Goodell, John W., 2023. "Linkages between CBDC and cryptocurrency uncertainties, and digital payment stocks," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Huang, Chuangxia & Cai, Yaqian & Yang, Xiaoguang & Deng, Yanchen & Yang, Xin, 2023. "Laplacian-energy-like measure: Does it improve the Cross-Sectional Absolute Deviation herding model?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    5. Rico-Peña, Juan Jesús & Arguedas-Sanz, Raquel & López-Martin, Carmen, 2023. "Models used to characterise blockchain features. A systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    6. Wang, Nianling & Lou, Zhusheng, 2023. "Sequential Bayesian analysis for semiparametric stochastic volatility model with applications," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    7. Kumar Kulbhaskar, Anamika & Subramaniam, Sowmya, 2023. "Breaking news headlines: Impact on trading activity in the cryptocurrency market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    8. Cevik, Emrah Ismail & Gunay, Samet & Dibooglu, Sel & Yıldırım, Durmuş Çağrı, 2023. "The impact of expected and unexpected events on Bitcoin price development: Introduction of futures market and COVID-19," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ángeles Cebrián-Hernández & Enrique Jiménez-Rodríguez, 2021. "Modeling of the Bitcoin Volatility through Key Financial Environment Variables: An Application of Conditional Correlation MGARCH Models," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Helder Sebastião & Pedro Godinho, 2021. "Forecasting and trading cryptocurrencies with machine learning under changing market conditions," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-30, December.
    3. Andersen, Torben G. & Bollerslev, Tim & Christoffersen, Peter F. & Diebold, Francis X., 2005. "Volatility forecasting," CFS Working Paper Series 2005/08, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    4. Andersen, Torben G. & Bollerslev, Tim & Christoffersen, Peter F. & Diebold, Francis X., 2006. "Volatility and Correlation Forecasting," Handbook of Economic Forecasting, in: G. Elliott & C. Granger & A. Timmermann (ed.), Handbook of Economic Forecasting, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 15, pages 777-878, Elsevier.
    5. Nikolaos A. Kyriazis, 2021. "A Survey on Volatility Fluctuations in the Decentralized Cryptocurrency Financial Assets," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-46, June.
    6. Kumar Kulbhaskar, Anamika & Subramaniam, Sowmya, 2023. "Breaking news headlines: Impact on trading activity in the cryptocurrency market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    7. Achraf Ghorbel & Wajdi Frikha & Yasmine Snene Manzli, 2022. "Testing for asymmetric non-linear short- and long-run relationships between crypto-currencies and stock markets," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 12(3), pages 387-425, September.
    8. Helder Miguel Correia Virtuoso Sebastião & Paulo José Osório Rupino Da Cunha & Pedro Manuel Cortesão Godinho, 2021. "Cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Overview and future perspectives," International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 21(3), pages 305-342.
    9. BAUWENS, Luc & HAFNER, Christian & LAURENT, Sébastien, 2011. "Volatility models," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2011058, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
      • Bauwens, L. & Hafner, C. & Laurent, S., 2012. "Volatility Models," LIDAM Reprints ISBA 2012028, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
      • Bauwens, L. & Hafner C. & Laurent, S., 2011. "Volatility Models," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2011044, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    10. Walther, Thomas & Klein, Tony & Bouri, Elie, 2019. "Exogenous drivers of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency volatility – A mixed data sampling approach to forecasting," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Constandina Koki & Stefanos Leonardos & Georgios Piliouras, 2019. "A Peek into the Unobservable: Hidden States and Bayesian Inference for the Bitcoin and Ether Price Series," Papers 1909.10957, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2021.
    12. Walther, Thomas & Klein, Tony & Bouri, Elie, 2018. "Exogenous Drivers of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Volatility – A Mixed Data Sampling Approach to Forecasting," QBS Working Paper Series 2018/02, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's Business School.
    13. Aurelio F. Bariviera & Ignasi Merediz‐Solà, 2021. "Where Do We Stand In Cryptocurrencies Economic Research? A Survey Based On Hybrid Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 377-407, April.
    14. Shang, Yuhuang & Zheng, Tingguo, 2021. "Mixed-frequency SV model for stock volatility and macroeconomics," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 462-472.
    15. Ahmed, Walid M.A., 2022. "Robust drivers of Bitcoin price movements: An extreme bounds analysis," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    16. Andrea Flori, 2019. "Cryptocurrencies In Finance: Review And Applications," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(05), pages 1-22, August.
    17. Darjus Hosszejni & Gregor Kastner, 2019. "Modeling Univariate and Multivariate Stochastic Volatility in R with stochvol and factorstochvol," Papers 1906.12123, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2021.
    18. Catania, Leopoldo & Proietti, Tommaso, 2020. "Forecasting volatility with time-varying leverage and volatility of volatility effects," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1301-1317.
    19. Manabu Asai & Michael McAleer, 2011. "Alternative Asymmetric Stochastic Volatility Models," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 548-564, October.
    20. Mensi, Walid & Sensoy, Ahmet & Aslan, Aylin & Kang, Sang Hoon, 2019. "High-frequency asymmetric volatility connectedness between Bitcoin and major precious metals markets," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cryptocurrencies; Returns and volatility; Stochastic volatility; Time-varying parameter model; Forecasting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:104:y:2021:i:c:s0264999321002327. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.