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Testing for herding in the cryptocurrency market

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  • Ballis, Antonis
  • Drakos, Konstantinos

Abstract

The study investigates whether herding behavior is present in the rapidly emerging cryptocurrency market. By analyzing daily data from major cryptocurrencies during the period August 2015 to December 2018, we find evidence that investors in the cryptocurrency market act irrationally and imitate other's decisions with no reference to their own beliefs. Furthermore, our empirical results provide evidence that the up-events market dispersion follows market movements at a faster pace compared to the down events. Thus, cryptocurrencies show a behavior where they tend to move in tandem, which does not necessarily reflect their fundamentals.

Suggested Citation

  • Ballis, Antonis & Drakos, Konstantinos, 2020. "Testing for herding in the cryptocurrency market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:33:y:2020:i:c:s1544612319301643
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2019.06.008
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    Cited by:

    1. Youssef, Mouna & Waked, Sami Sobhi, 2022. "Herding behavior in the cryptocurrency market during COVID-19 pandemic: The role of media coverage," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Demir, Ender & Simonyan, Serdar & García-Gómez, Conrado-Diego & Lau, Chi Keung Marco, 2021. "The asymmetric effect of bitcoin on altcoins: evidence from the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    3. Mohamad, Azhar & Stavroyiannis, Stavros, 2022. "Do birds of a feather flock together? Evidence from time-varying herding behaviour of bitcoin and foreign exchange majors during Covid-19," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Dunbar, Kwamie & Owusu-Amoako, Johnson, 2023. "Predictability of crypto returns: The impact of trading behavior," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    5. Smales, L.A., 2022. "Investor attention in cryptocurrency markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Martin Waltz & Abhay Kumar Singh & Ostap Okhrin, 2022. "Vulnerability-CoVaR: investigating the crypto-market," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(9), pages 1731-1745, September.
    7. Antonis Ballis & Konstantinos Drakos, 2021. "The explosion in cryptocurrencies: a black hole analogy," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Caferra, Rocco, 2020. "Good vibes only: The crypto-optimistic behavior," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    9. Jia, Boxiang & Shen, Dehua & Zhang, Wei, 2022. "Extreme sentiment and herding: Evidence from the cryptocurrency market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    10. Ajithakumari Vijayappan Nair Biju & Ann Susan Thomas, 2023. "Uncertainties and ambivalence in the crypto market: an urgent need for a regional crypto regulation," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(8), pages 1-21, August.
    11. Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan & Šević, Aleksandar & González-López, Isaac, 2023. "Impact of social metrics in decentralized finance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    12. Yousaf, Imran & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2022. "Herding behavior in conventional cryptocurrency market, non-fungible tokens, and DeFi assets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    13. Zhao, Yuan & Liu, Nan & Li, Wanpeng, 2022. "Industry herding in crypto assets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    14. Jinxin Cui & Aktham Maghyereh, 2022. "Time–frequency co-movement and risk connectedness among cryptocurrencies: new evidence from the higher-order moments before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-56, December.
    15. Hachicha, Fatma & Masmoudi, Afif & Abid, Ilyes & Obeid, Hassan, 2023. "Herding behavior in exploring the predictability of price clustering in cryptocurrency market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    16. Paolo Agnese & Paolo Capuano & Luca Secondi, 2020. "The Impact of Unconventional Monetary Policies on the Stocks of Bank Deposits: Evidence at an Aggregate Level in the Euro Area," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(6), pages 270-277, December.
    17. Ozkan Haykir & Ibrahim Yagli, 2022. "Speculative bubbles and herding in cryptocurrencies," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-33, December.
    18. Almeida, José & Gonçalves, Tiago Cruz, 2023. "A systematic literature review of investor behavior in the cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    19. Nikolaos A. Kyriazis, 2021. "A Survey on Volatility Fluctuations in the Decentralized Cryptocurrency Financial Assets," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-46, June.
    20. Kim, Myeong Jun & Canh, Nguyen Phuc & Park, Sung Y., 2021. "Causal relationship among cryptocurrencies: A conditional quantile approach," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    21. Evrim Mandaci, Pinar & Cagli, Efe Caglar, 2022. "Herding intensity and volatility in cryptocurrency markets during the COVID-19," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    22. Guiqiang Shi & Dehua Shen & Zhaobo Zhu, 2024. "Herding towards carbon neutrality: The role of investor attention," Post-Print hal-04348526, HAL.
    23. Gong, Pu & Wen, Zhuzhu & Xiong, Xiong & Gong, Cynthia M., 2021. "When do investors gamble in the stock market?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    24. Rubbaniy, Ghulame & Polyzos, Stathis & Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas & Tessema, Abiot, 2021. "COVID-19, Lockdowns and herding towards a cryptocurrency market-specific implied volatility index," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    25. Suvvari ANANDARAO & Balaga Mohana RAO & Anoop S KUMAR, 2023. "An enquiry into extreme price movements of the cryptocurrencies in the backdrop of COVID-19," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(2(635), S), pages 231-238, Summer.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Behavioral finance; Herd behavior; Cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

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