IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v38y2021ics1544612320316123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Bitcoin and Ethereum safe-havens for stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Author

Listed:
  • Dwita Mariana, Christy
  • Ekaputra, Irwan Adi
  • Husodo, Zaäfri Ananto

Abstract

Utilizing the WHO COVID-19 pandemic statement, we test Bitcoin and Ethereum as safe-havens for stocks. We find that the two largest cryptocurrencies are suitable as short-term safe-havens. The DCC and cDCC results show that their daily returns tend to correlate with S&P500 return negatively during the pandemic. The regression results also robustly support the safe-haven features and uncover that Ethereum is possibly a better safe-haven than Bitcoin. However, we note that both coins exhibit high volatilities. Before (during) the pandemic daily volatilities of Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, and the S&P500 are 3.44% (9.11%), 4.34% (10.96%), 0.89% (2.19%), and 1.27% (6.07%), respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Dwita Mariana, Christy & Ekaputra, Irwan Adi & Husodo, Zaäfri Ananto, 2021. "Are Bitcoin and Ethereum safe-havens for stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:38:y:2021:i:c:s1544612320316123
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2020.101798
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612320316123
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2020.101798?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. Dirk G. Baur & Brian M. Lucey, 2010. "Is Gold a Hedge or a Safe Haven? An Analysis of Stocks, Bonds and Gold," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 217-229, May.
    2. Anders Stensås & Magnus Frostholm Nygaard & Khine Kyaw & Sirimon Treepongkaruna, 2019. "Can Bitcoin be a diversifier, hedge or safe haven tool?," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 1593072-159, January.
    3. Conlon, Thomas & McGee, Richard, 2020. "Safe haven or risky hazard? Bitcoin during the Covid-19 bear market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    4. Corbet, Shaen & Hou, Yang & Hu, Yang & Lucey, Brian & Oxley, Les, 2021. "Aye Corona! The contagion effects of being named Corona during the COVID-19 pandemic," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    5. Bouri, Elie & Hussain Shahzad, Syed Jawad & Roubaud, David, 2020. "Cryptocurrencies as hedges and safe-havens for US equity sectors," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 294-307.
    6. Sandoval, Leonidas & Franca, Italo De Paula, 2012. "Correlation of financial markets in times of crisis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(1), pages 187-208.
    7. 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.
    8. Beneki, Christina & Koulis, Alexandros & Kyriazis, Nikolaos A. & Papadamou, Stephanos, 2019. "Investigating volatility transmission and hedging properties between Bitcoin and Ethereum," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 219-227.
    9. Geuder, Julian & Kinateder, Harald & Wagner, Niklas F., 2019. "Cryptocurrencies as financial bubbles: The case of Bitcoin," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    10. Engle, Robert, 2002. "Dynamic Conditional Correlation: A Simple Class of Multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(3), pages 339-350, July.
    11. Dyhrberg, Anne Haubo, 2016. "Bitcoin, gold and the dollar – A GARCH volatility analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 85-92.
    12. Gil-Alana, Luis Alberiko & Abakah, Emmanuel Joel Aikins & Rojo, María Fátima Romero, 2020. "Cryptocurrencies and stock market indices. Are they related?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    13. Corbet, Shaen & Larkin, Charles & Lucey, Brian, 2020. "The contagion effects of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from gold and cryptocurrencies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    14. Gian Piero Aielli, 2013. "Dynamic Conditional Correlation: On Properties and Estimation," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 282-299, July.
    15. Hussain Shahzad, Syed Jawad & Bouri, Elie & Roubaud, David & Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2020. "Safe haven, hedge and diversification for G7 stock markets: Gold versus bitcoin," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 212-224.
    16. Bouri, Elie & Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Roubaud, David & Kristoufek, Ladislav & Lucey, Brian, 2020. "Bitcoin, gold, and commodities as safe havens for stocks: New insight through wavelet analysis," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 156-164.
    17. Smales, L.A., 2019. "Bitcoin as a safe haven: Is it even worth considering?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 385-393.
    18. Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Bouri, Elie & Roubaud, David & Kristoufek, Ladislav & Lucey, Brian, 2019. "Is Bitcoin a better safe-haven investment than gold and commodities?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 322-330.
    19. Chaim, Pedro & Laurini, Márcio P., 2019. "Is Bitcoin a bubble?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 517(C), pages 222-232.
    20. 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.
    21. Chan, Wing Hong & Le, Minh & Wu, Yan Wendy, 2019. "Holding Bitcoin longer: The dynamic hedging abilities of Bitcoin," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 107-113.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hanif, Waqas & Areola Hernandez, Jose & Troster, Victor & Kang, Sang Hoon & Yoon, Seong-Min, 2022. "Nonlinear dependence and spillovers between cryptocurrency and global/regional equity markets," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Li, Leon & Miu, Peter, 2023. "Are cryptocurrencies a safe haven for stock investors? A regime-switching approach," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 367-385.
    3. Ihsan Erdem Kayral & Ahmed Jeribi & Sahar Loukil, 2023. "Are Bitcoin and Gold a Safe Haven during COVID-19 and the 2022 Russia–Ukraine War?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-22, April.
    4. Hsu, Shu-Han & Sheu, Chwen & Yoon, Jiho, 2021. "Risk spillovers between cryptocurrencies and traditional currencies and gold under different global economic conditions," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    5. Parthajit Kayal & Purnima Rohilla, 2021. "Bitcoin in the economics and finance literature: a survey," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(7), pages 1-21, July.
    6. Alhonita Yatie, 2022. "Crypto-assets better safe-havens than Gold during Covid-19: The case of European indices," Working Papers hal-03579957, HAL.
    7. Alhonita Yatie, 2022. "Crypto-assets better safe-havens than Gold during Covid-19: The case of European indices," Papers 2202.10760, arXiv.org.
    8. Noman, Abu Hanifa Md & Karim, Muhammad Mahmudul & Hassan, Mohammad Kabir & Khan, Muhammad Asif & Pervin, Sajeda, 2023. "COVID-19 pandemic and the dynamics of major investable assets: What gives shelter to investors?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 14-30.
    9. Syuhada, Khreshna & Hakim, Arief & Suprijanto, Djoko & Muchtadi-Alamsyah, Intan & Arbi, Lukman, 2022. "Is Tether a safe haven of safe haven amid COVID-19? An assessment against Bitcoin and oil using improved measures of risk," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Nedved, Martin & Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2023. "Safe havens for Bitcoin," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    11. 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.
    12. Mokni, Khaled & Youssef, Manel & Ajmi, Ahdi Noomen, 2022. "COVID-19 pandemic and economic policy uncertainty: The first test on the hedging and safe haven properties of cryptocurrencies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    13. Chu, Jeffrey & Chan, Stephen & Zhang, Yuanyuan, 2021. "Bitcoin versus high-performance technology stocks in diversifying against global stock market indices," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 580(C).
    14. Wang, Peijin & Zhang, Hongwei & Yang, Cai & Guo, Yaoqi, 2021. "Time and frequency dynamics of connectedness and hedging performance in global stock markets: Bitcoin versus conventional hedges," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    15. Khaki, Audil & Prasad, Mason & Al-Mohamad, Somar & Bakry, Walid & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2023. "Re-evaluating portfolio diversification and design using cryptocurrencies: Are decentralized cryptocurrencies enough?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    16. Disli, Mustafa & Nagayev, Ruslan & Salim, Kinan & Rizkiah, Siti K. & Aysan, Ahmet F., 2021. "In search of safe haven assets during COVID-19 pandemic: An empirical analysis of different investor types," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    17. Guo, Xiaochun & Lu, Fengbin & Wei, Yunjie, 2021. "Capture the contagion network of bitcoin – Evidence from pre and mid COVID-19," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    18. Rubaiyat Ahsan Bhuiyan & Afzol Husain & Changyong Zhang, 2023. "Diversification evidence of bitcoin and gold from wavelet analysis," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-36, December.
    19. Yousaf, Imran & Plakandaras, Vasilios & Bouri, Elie & Gupta, Rangan, 2023. "Hedge and safe-haven properties of FAANA against gold, US Treasury, bitcoin, and US Dollar/CHF during the pandemic period," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Wang, Gang-Jin & Ma, Xin-yu & Wu, Hao-yu, 2020. "Are stablecoins truly diversifiers, hedges, or safe havens against traditional cryptocurrencies as their name suggests?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    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:finlet:v:38:y:2021:i:c:s1544612320316123. 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/frl .

    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.