IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finmar/v64y2023ics1386418123000150.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Arbitrage in the market for cryptocurrencies

Author

Listed:
  • Crépellière, Tommy
  • Pelster, Matthias
  • Zeisberger, Stefan

Abstract

Arbitrage opportunities in markets for cryptocurrencies are well-documented. In this paper, we confirm that they exist; however, their magnitude decreased greatly from April 2018 onward. Analyzing various trading strategies, we show that it is barely possible to exploit existing price differences since then. We discuss and test several mechanisms that may be responsible for the increased market efficiency and find that informed trading is correlated with a reduction in arbitrage opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • Crépellière, Tommy & Pelster, Matthias & Zeisberger, Stefan, 2023. "Arbitrage in the market for cryptocurrencies," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finmar:v:64:y:2023:i:c:s1386418123000150
    DOI: 10.1016/j.finmar.2023.100817
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1386418123000150
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.finmar.2023.100817?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. Bianchi, Daniele & Babiak, Mykola & Dickerson, Alexander, 2022. "Trading volume and liquidity provision in cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    2. Yukun Liu & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2018. "Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrency," NBER Working Papers 24877, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Whitney K. Newey & Kenneth D. West, 1994. "Automatic Lag Selection in Covariance Matrix Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(4), pages 631-653.
    4. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2020. "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 293-319.
    5. Lin William Cong & Zhiguo He & Jiasun Li & Wei Jiang, 2021. "Decentralized Mining in Centralized Pools [Concentrating on the fall of the labor share]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 1191-1235.
    6. Gromb, Denis & Vayanos, Dimitri, 2002. "Equilibrium and welfare in markets with financially constrained arbitrageurs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 361-407.
    7. John M. Griffin & Amin Shams, 2020. "Is Bitcoin Really Untethered?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(4), pages 1913-1964, August.
    8. Nicola Borri & Kirill Shakhnov, 2022. "The Cross-Section of Cryptocurrency Returns [A simple estimation of bid-ask spreads from daily close, high, and low prices]," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(3), pages 667-705.
    9. Pieters, Gina & Vivanco, Sofia, 2017. "Financial regulations and price inconsistencies across Bitcoin markets," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-14.
    10. Nicolae Gârleanu & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2011. "Margin-based Asset Pricing and Deviations from the Law of One Price," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(6), pages 1980-2022.
    11. De Long, J Bradford & Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers & Robert J. Waldmann, 1990. "Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 703-738, August.
    12. Denis Gromb & Dimitri Vayanos, 2018. "The Dynamics of Financially Constrained Arbitrage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1713-1750, August.
    13. Akram, Q. Farooq & Rime, Dagfinn & Sarno, Lucio, 2008. "Arbitrage in the foreign exchange market: Turning on the microscope," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 237-253, December.
    14. Matthias Pelster & Bastian Breitmayer & Tim Hasso, 2019. "Are cryptocurrency traders pioneers or just risk-seekers? Evidence from brokerage accounts," Papers 1906.11968, arXiv.org.
    15. P. S. Lintilhac & A. Tourin, 2017. "Model-based pairs trading in the bitcoin markets," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 703-716, May.
    16. O'Hara, Maureen & Ye, Mao, 2011. "Is market fragmentation harming market quality?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 459-474, June.
    17. Jensen, Michael C., 1978. "Some anomalous evidence regarding market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2-3), pages 95-101.
    18. Gresse, Carole, 2017. "Effects of lit and dark market fragmentation on liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-20.
    19. Pelster, Matthias & Breitmayer, Bastian & Hasso, Tim, 2019. "Are cryptocurrency traders pioneers or just risk-seekers? Evidence from brokerage accounts," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 98-100.
    20. Hasso, Tim & Pelster, Matthias & Breitmayer, Bastian, 2019. "Who trades cryptocurrencies, how do they trade it, and how do they perform? Evidence from brokerage accounts," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 64-74.
    21. Lee, Charles M C & Ready, Mark J, 1991. "Inferring Trade Direction from Intraday Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(2), pages 733-746, June.
    22. Easley, David & O'Hara, Maureen & Basu, Soumya, 2019. "From mining to markets: The evolution of bitcoin transaction fees," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 91-109.
    23. Froot, Kenneth A. & Dabora, Emil M., 1999. "How are stock prices affected by the location of trade?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 189-216, August.
    24. Pankaj K. Jain & Thomas H. McInish & Jonathan L. Miller, 2019. "Insights from bitcoin trading," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 48(4), pages 1031-1048, December.
    25. Gur Huberman & Jacob D Leshno & Ciamac Moallemi, 2021. "Monopoly without a Monopolist: An Economic Analysis of the Bitcoin Payment System [Blockchain Economics]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(6), pages 3011-3040.
    26. Raphael Auer & Stijn Claessens, 2018. "Regulating cryptocurrencies: assessing market reactions," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    27. Shkilko, Andriy V. & Van Ness, Bonnie F. & Van Ness, Robert A., 2008. "Locked and crossed markets on NASDAQ and the NYSE," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 308-337, August.
    28. Rosenthal, Leonard & Young, Colin, 1990. "The seemingly anomalous price behavior of Royal Dutch/Shell and Unilever N.V./PLC," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 123-141, July.
    29. R. David Mclean & Jeffrey Pontiff, 2016. "Does Academic Research Destroy Stock Return Predictability?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(1), pages 5-32, February.
    30. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2020. "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100409, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    31. Rainer Böhme & Nicolas Christin & Benjamin Edelman & Tyler Moore, 2015. "Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(2), pages 213-238, Spring.
    32. C. Alexander & M. Dakos, 2020. "A critical investigation of cryptocurrency data and analysis," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 173-188, February.
    33. Tarun Ramadorai, 2008. "What determines transaction costs in foreign exchange markets?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(1), pages 14-25.
    34. Carole Gresse, 2017. "Effects of Lit and Dark Market Fragmentation on Liquidity," Post-Print hal-01631771, HAL.
    35. Yong Chao & Chen Yao & Mao Ye, 2017. "Discrete Pricing and Market Fragmentation: A Tale of Two-Sided Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 196-199, May.
    36. Dyhrberg, Anne H. & Foley, Sean & Svec, Jiri, 2018. "How investible is Bitcoin? Analyzing the liquidity and transaction costs of Bitcoin markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 140-143.
    37. Wei, Wang Chun, 2018. "Liquidity and market efficiency in cryptocurrencies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 21-24.
    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. Saggese, Pietro & Belmonte, Alessandro & Dimitri, Nicola & Facchini, Angelo & Böhme, Rainer, 2023. "Arbitrageurs in the Bitcoin ecosystem: Evidence from user-level trading patterns in the Mt. Gox exchange platform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 251-270.

    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. Saggese, Pietro & Belmonte, Alessandro & Dimitri, Nicola & Facchini, Angelo & Böhme, Rainer, 2023. "Arbitrageurs in the Bitcoin ecosystem: Evidence from user-level trading patterns in the Mt. Gox exchange platform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 251-270.
    2. Dunbar, Kwamie & Owusu-Amoako, Johnson, 2022. "Cryptocurrency returns under empirical asset pricing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2020. "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100409, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Hanna Halaburda & Guillaume Haeringer & Joshua Gans & Neil Gandal, 2022. "The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 971-1013, September.
    5. Hinzen, Franz J. & John, Kose & Saleh, Fahad, 2022. "Bitcoin’s limited adoption problem," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 347-369.
    6. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2020. "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 293-319.
    7. Feng, Wenjun & Zhang, Zhengjun, 2023. "Currency exchange rate predictability: The new power of Bitcoin prices," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    8. Saketh Aleti & Bruce Mizrach, 2021. "Bitcoin spot and futures market microstructure," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(2), pages 194-225, February.
    9. Flori, Andrea, 2019. "News and subjective beliefs: A Bayesian approach to Bitcoin investments," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 336-356.
    10. Bruno Biais & Christophe Bisière & Matthieu Bouvard & Catherine Casamatta & Albert J. Menkveld, 2023. "Equilibrium Bitcoin Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(2), pages 967-1014, April.
    11. Li, Yi & Urquhart, Andrew & Wang, Pengfei & Zhang, Wei, 2021. "MAX momentum in cryptocurrency markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    12. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2021. "Blockchain analysis of the Bitcoin market," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118897, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Li Guo & Wolfgang Karl Hardle & Yubo Tao, 2018. "A Time-Varying Network for Cryptocurrencies," Papers 1802.03708, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    14. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2018. "Trading and Arbitrage in Cryptocurrency Markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118909, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. 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.
    16. Bianchi, Daniele & Babiak, Mykola & Dickerson, Alexander, 2022. "Trading volume and liquidity provision in cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    17. Nicolás Magner & Nicolás Hardy, 2022. "Cryptocurrency Forecasting: More Evidence of the Meese-Rogoff Puzzle," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(13), pages 1-27, July.
    18. Sokolov, Konstantin, 2021. "Ransomware activity and blockchain congestion," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 771-782.
    19. Igor Makarov & Antoinette Schoar, 2021. "Blockchain Analysis of the Bitcoin Market," NBER Working Papers 29396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Zhang, Wei & Li, Yi & Xiong, Xiong & Wang, Pengfei, 2021. "Downside risk and the cross-section of cryptocurrency returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Arbitrage; Law of one price; Cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin; FinTech;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    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:finmar:v:64:y:2023:i:c:s1386418123000150. 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/finmar .

    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.