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COVID-19, Lockdowns and herding towards a cryptocurrency market-specific implied volatility index

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  • Rubbaniy, Ghulame
  • Polyzos, Stathis
  • Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas
  • Tessema, Abiot

Abstract

This study investigates herd effects in 101 cryptocurrencies during the period from January 2015 to June 2020. Our results confirm the existence of herding behavior in the cryptocurrency market for the entire sample and show that herding asymmetry is present during both bullish and bearish regimes. The asymmetry in correlated trading is particularly visible in extreme return percentile regimes (1% and 5%) of cryptocurrency market Although our study finds no evidence of correlated trading when cryptocurrency specific fear prevails in the market, crypto investors seem to mimic the trading decisions of others during the COVID-19 pandemic, outside the lockdown periods.

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  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:207:y:2021:i:c:s0165176521002949
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110017
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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. Li, Yi & Lucey, Brian & Urquhart, Andrew, 2023. "Can altcoins act as hedges or safe-havens for Bitcoin?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    3. Su, Chi-Wei & Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas & Naqvi, Bushra & Mirza, Nawazish & Umar, Muhammad, 2022. "COVID19: A blessing in disguise for European stock markets?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    4. Matsuki, Takashi & Pan, Lei, 2021. "How did Australian financial markets react to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout? Fresh evidence from quantile copula spectrum analysis," MPRA Paper 111136, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Zarifhonarvar, Ali, 2022. "The Effect of Covid Pandemic on Cryptocurrency Markets; A Literature Review," EconStor Preprints 266369, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. 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).
    7. Baur, Dirk G. & Hoang, Lai T. & Hossain, Md Zakir, 2022. "Is Bitcoin a hedge? How extreme volatility can destroy the hedge property," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    8. Nguyen, An Pham Ngoc & Mai, Tai Tan & Bezbradica, Marija & Crane, Martin, 2023. "Volatility and returns connectedness in cryptocurrency markets: Insights from graph-based methods," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 632(P1).
    9. Rubbaniy, Ghulame & Tee, Kienpin & Iren, Perihan & Abdennadher, Sonia, 2022. "Investors’ mood and herd investing: A quantile-on-quantile regression explanation from crypto market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    10. 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).
    11. Nguyen, Jeremy K., 2022. "Racial discrimination in non-fungible token (NFT) prices? CryptoPunk sales and skin tone," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    12. Umar, Muhammad & Shahzad, Fakhar & Ullah, Irfan & Fanghua, Tong, 2023. "A comparative analysis of cryptocurrency returns and economic policy uncertainty pre- and post-Covid-19," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    13. Jyothi Chittineni, 2022. "A Study on Cryptocurrency Investors Purchase Intentions: Revisiting the Brand Personality Theory," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 12(4), pages 28-33, July.
    14. Shaen Corbet & Les Oxley, 2023. "Investigating the Academic Response to Cryptocurrencies: Insights from Research Diversification as Separated by Journal Ranking," Review of Corporate Finance, now publishers, vol. 3(4), pages 487-528, September.
    15. Maouchi, Youcef & Charfeddine, Lanouar & El Montasser, Ghassen, 2022. "Understanding digital bubbles amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from DeFi and NFTs," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; Herding behavior; Cryptocurrencies; VCRIX; Market fear;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

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