IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bjw/econen/v15y2025i1p99-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can cryptos hedge against inflation? Evidence from biwavelet analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Thai Hong Le

    (VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam)

  • Duc Anh Nguyen

    (VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam)

  • Dung Anh Le

    (Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union of Bac Giang City, Bac Giang, Vietnam)

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the role of cryptocurrencies as an effective hedging tool against inflation across different investment horizons. Specifically, we investigate the co-movement between the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the US, Euro, and Japan, and the returns as well as volatilities of four key cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple). In doing so, we adopt the biwavelet coherence framework using monthly data spanning over the period from September 2015 to May 2023. Our results suggest that cryptocurrencies, except Ethereum, can serve as safe-haven and effective long-term hedging assets against inflation in the US and EU. On the other hand, Litecoin stands out as the only crypto that can effectively hedge assets in the medium term. In Japan, we observe significantly low to no co-movement between cryptocurrencies’ returns and the CPI, suggesting the usefulness of the sampled cryptocurrencies as diversifiers against inflation. Our findings thus have implications for not only investors seeking to diversify their portfolios and mitigate inflation risk but also policymakers navigating the evolving landscape of digital assets and inflation management strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Thai Hong Le & Duc Anh Nguyen & Dung Anh Le, 2025. "Can cryptos hedge against inflation? Evidence from biwavelet analysis," HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY, vol. 15(1), pages 99-115.
    • Handle: RePEc:bjw:econen:v:15:y:2025:i:1:p:99-115
    DOI: 10.46223/HCMCOUJS.econ.en.15.1.3109.2025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journalofscience.ou.edu.vn/index.php/econ-en/article/view/3109/2279
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.46223/HCMCOUJS.econ.en.15.1.3109.2025?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blose, Laurence E., 2010. "Gold prices, cost of carry, and expected inflation," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 35-47, January.
    2. Hoang, Thi Hong Van & Lahiani, Amine & Heller, David, 2016. "Is gold a hedge against inflation? New evidence from a nonlinear ARDL approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 54-66.
    3. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Tahir, Mohammad Iqbal & Ali, Imran & Rehman, Ijaz Ur, 2014. "Is gold investment a hedge against inflation in Pakistan? A co-integration and causality analysis in the presence of structural breaks," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 190-205.
    4. Andrew C. Worthington & Mosayeb Pahlavani, 2007. "Gold investment as an inflationary hedge: cointegration evidence with allowance for endogenous structural breaks," Applied Financial Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(4), pages 259-262.
    5. Dyhrberg, Anne Haubo, 2016. "Hedging capabilities of bitcoin. Is it the virtual gold?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 139-144.
    6. Sakurai, Yuji & Kurosaki, Tetsuo, 2023. "Have cryptocurrencies become an inflation hedge after the reopening of the U.S. economy?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Yukun Liu & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2021. "Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrency," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(6), pages 2689-2727.
    8. Aharon, David Y. & Qadan, Mahmoud, 2022. "Infection, invasion, and inflation: Recent lessons," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    9. Baur, Dirk G. & McDermott, Thomas K.J., 2016. "Why is gold a safe haven?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 63-71.
    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. Syed Abul, Basher & Perry, Sadorsky, 2022. "Forecasting Bitcoin price direction with random forests: How important are interest rates, inflation, and market volatility?," MPRA Paper 113293, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mohamed Arbi Madani & Zied Ftiti, 2022. "Is gold a hedge or safe haven against oil and currency market movements? A revisit using multifractal approach," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 313(1), pages 367-400, June.
    3. Sen, Chitrakalpa & Chakrabarti, Gagari, 2024. "Beyond the glitter: An empirical assessment of the true risk and hedging role of precious metals," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    4. N.S. Al-Nassar & Sabri Boubaker & A. Chaibi & B. Makram, 2023. "In Search of Hedges and Safe Havens during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Gold versus Bitcoin, Oil, and Oil Uncertainty," Post-Print hal-04435437, HAL.
    5. Salisu, Afees A. & Ndako, Umar B. & Oloko, Tirimisiyu F., 2019. "Assessing the inflation hedging of gold and palladium in OECD countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 357-377.
    6. Al-Nassar, Nassar S. & Boubaker, Sabri & Chaibi, Anis & Makram, Beljid, 2023. "In search of hedges and safe havens during the COVID─19 pandemic: Gold versus Bitcoin, oil, and oil uncertainty," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 318-332.
    7. Zhu, Xuehong & Niu, Zibo & Zhang, Hongwei & Huang, Jiaxin & Zuo, Xuguang, 2022. "Can gold and bitcoin hedge against the COVID-19 related news sentiment risk? New evidence from a NARDL approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Mohamed Arbi Madani & Zied Ftiti, 2019. "The Generalisation of the DMCA Coefficient to Serve Distinguishing Between Hedge and Safe Haven Capabilities of the Gold," Papers 1912.12590, arXiv.org.
    9. Perry Sadorsky, 2021. "Predicting Gold and Silver Price Direction Using Tree-Based Classifiers," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-21, April.
    10. Chhatwani, Malvika & Parija, Arpit Kumar, 2023. "Who invests in cryptocurrency? The role of overconfidence among American investors," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    11. Janani Sri S. & Parthajit Kayal & G. Balasubramanian, 2022. "Can Equity be Safe-haven for Investment?," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 21(1), pages 32-63, March.
    12. Hoque, Mohammad Enamul & Soo-Wah, Low & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Akhter, Tahmina, 2023. "Time and frequency domain connectedness and spillover among categorical and regional financial stress, gold and bitcoin market," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    13. Yingying Xu & Zhi‐Xin Liu & Chi‐Wei Su & Jaime Ortiz, 2019. "Gold and inflation: Expected inflation effect or carrying cost effect?," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 380-398, December.
    14. Adekoya, Oluwasegun B. & Oliyide, Johnson A. & Tahir, Hammad, 2021. "What do we know about the inflation-hedging property of precious metals in Africa? The case of leading producers of the commodities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    15. Hung, Jui-Cheng & Liu, Hung-Chun & Jimmy Yang, J., 2024. "The economic value of Bitcoin: A volatility timing perspective with portfolio rebalancing," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    16. Svetoslav Borisov, 2024. "Bitcoin – Hedge or Speculative Asset: Analysis of Its Role and Nature," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 5, pages 148-170.
    17. TRIFU, Cosmin & BLAGA, Florin & MIHAI, Georgian Danut, 2022. "Pandemic. A Non-Linear Analysis," Journal of Financial and Monetary Economics, Centre of Financial and Monetary Research "Victor Slavescu", vol. 10(1), pages 184-189, October.
    18. Bouoiyour, Jamal & Selmi, Refk & Wohar, Mark E., 2018. "Measuring the response of gold prices to uncertainty: An analysis beyond the mean," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 105-116.
    19. Lucey, Brian M. & Sharma, Susan Sunila & Vigne, Samuel A., 2017. "Gold and inflation(s) – A time-varying relationship," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 88-101.
    20. Spyros Papathanasiou & Dimitris Kenourgios & Drosos Koutsokostas & Georgios Pergeris, 2023. "Can treasury inflation-protected securities safeguard investors from outward risk spillovers? A portfolio hedging strategy through the prism of COVID-19," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 198-211, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

    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:bjw:econen:v:15:y:2025:i:1:p:99-115. 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: Vu Tuan Truong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journalofscience.ou.edu.vn/index.php/econ-en .

    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.