IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finmar/v71y2024ics138641812400048x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Arbitrage opportunities and efficiency tests in crypto derivatives

Author

Listed:
  • Alexander, Carol
  • Chen, Xi
  • Deng, Jun
  • Wang, Tianyi

Abstract

We test the joint efficiency of the bitcoin and ether options and perpetual futures markets and identify the determinants of arbitrage opportunities. Our novel fiat-currency-free put–call parity relationship motivates new arbitrage tests for options-only and option–perpetual cross-markets. Bitcoin and ether derivatives markets are becoming more efficient, especially for options of maturity ≥ 15 days. Bitcoin derivative markets are generally more efficient than ether derivative markets, but arbitrage strategies can still be highly profitable even under conservative transaction cost scenarios, which include slippage for large orders, especially during periods of high trading volumes or when the blockchain traffic becomes more congested.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander, Carol & Chen, Xi & Deng, Jun & Wang, Tianyi, 2024. "Arbitrage opportunities and efficiency tests in crypto derivatives," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finmar:v:71:y:2024:i:c:s138641812400048x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.finmar.2024.100930
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138641812400048X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.finmar.2024.100930?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. Alexander, Carol & Deng, Jun & Zou, Bin, 2023. "Hedging with automatic liquidation and leverage selection on bitcoin futures," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(1), pages 478-493.
    2. Scholes, Myron & Williams, Joseph, 1977. "Estimating betas from nonsynchronous data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 309-327, December.
    3. Lin William Cong & Xi Li & Ke Tang & Yang Yang, 2023. "Crypto Wash Trading," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(11), pages 6427-6454, November.
    4. Kapar, Burcu & Olmo, Jose, 2019. "An analysis of price discovery between Bitcoin futures and spot markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 62-64.
    5. Kalok Chan & Y. Peter Chung & Wai-Ming Fong, 2002. "The Informational Role of Stock and Option Volume," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(4), pages 1049-1075.
    6. Alexander, Carol & Deng, Jun & Feng, Jianfen & Wan, Huning, 2023. "Net buying pressure and the information in bitcoin option trades," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    7. Aruoba, S. BoraÄŸan & Diebold, Francis X. & Scotti, Chiara, 2009. "Real-Time Measurement of Business Conditions," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 27(4), pages 417-427.
    8. Chiras, Donald P. & Manaster, Steven, 1978. "The information content of option prices and a test of market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2-3), pages 213-234.
    9. Olivier Scaillet & Adrien Treccani & Christopher Trevisan, 2020. "High-Frequency Jump Analysis of the Bitcoin Market," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 209-232.
    10. Zhiyong Cheng & Jun Deng & Tianyi Wang & Mei Yu, 2021. "Liquidation, leverage and optimal margin in bitcoin futures markets," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(47), pages 5415-5428, October.
    11. Urquhart, Andrew, 2016. "The inefficiency of Bitcoin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 80-82.
    12. 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.
    13. Ackert, Lucy F. & Tian, Yisong S., 2001. "Efficiency in index options markets and trading in stock baskets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(9), pages 1607-1634, September.
    14. Melanie Cao & Batur Celik, 2021. "Valuation of bitcoin options," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(7), pages 1007-1026, July.
    15. Carol Alexander & Ding Chen & Arben Imeraj, 2023. "Crypto quanto and inverse options," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 1005-1043, October.
    16. Lai T. Hoang & Dirk G. Baur, 2020. "Forecasting bitcoin volatility: Evidence from the options market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(10), pages 1584-1602, October.
    17. Lo, Andrew W. & Craig MacKinlay, A., 1990. "An econometric analysis of nonsynchronous trading," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1-2), pages 181-211.
    18. Stephen A. Ross, 1976. "Options and Efficiency," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(1), pages 75-89.
    19. Crépellière, Tommy & Pelster, Matthias & Zeisberger, Stefan, 2023. "Arbitrage in the market for cryptocurrencies," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Klemkosky, Robert C & Resnick, Bruce G, 1979. "Put-Call Parity and Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 34(5), pages 1141-1155, December.
    21. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2020. "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 293-319.
    22. Carol Alexander & Jaehyuk Choi & Heungju Park & Sungbin Sohn, 2020. "BitMEX bitcoin derivatives: Price discovery, informational efficiency, and hedging effectiveness," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 23-43, January.
    23. Jun Deng & Huifeng Pan & Shuyu Zhang & Bin Zou, 2020. "Minimum-variance hedging of Bitcoin inverse futures," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(58), pages 6320-6337, December.
    24. Katsiampa, Paraskevi, 2019. "Volatility co-movement between Bitcoin and Ether," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 221-227.
    25. Brauneis, Alexander & Mestel, Roland, 2018. "Price discovery of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin and beyond," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 58-61.
    26. Ai Jun Hou & Weining Wang & Cathy Y H Chen & Wolfgang Karl Härdle, 2020. "Pricing Cryptocurrency Options," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 250-279.
    27. Cremers, Martijn & Weinbaum, David, 2010. "Deviations from Put-Call Parity and Stock Return Predictability," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(2), pages 335-367, April.
    28. 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.
    29. Black, Fischer & Scholes, Myron S, 1972. "The Valuation of Option Contracts and a Test of Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 27(2), pages 399-417, May.
    30. Alexander, Carol & Choi, Jaehyuk & Massie, Hamish R.A. & Sohn, Sungbin, 2020. "Price discovery and microstructure in ether spot and derivative markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    31. Peter Carr & Liuren Wu, 2009. "Variance Risk Premiums," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1311-1341, March.
    32. Wen Jin & Joshua Livnat & Yuan Zhang, 2012. "Option Prices Leading Equity Prices: Do Option Traders Have an Information Advantage?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 401-432, May.
    33. Tak Kuen Siu & Robert J. Elliott, 2021. "Bitcoin option pricing with a SETAR-GARCH model," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 564-595, April.
    34. Jun Deng & Huifeng Pan & Shuyu Zhang & Bin Zou, 2021. "Optimal Bitcoin trading with inverse futures," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 304(1), pages 139-163, September.
    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. Shimeng Shi & Jia Zhai & Yingying Wu, 2024. "Informational inefficiency on bitcoin futures," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 642-667, April.
    2. Alexander, Carol & Deng, Jun & Feng, Jianfen & Wan, Huning, 2023. "Net buying pressure and the information in bitcoin option trades," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. Danial Saef & Odett Nagy & Sergej Sizov & Wolfgang Karl Härdle, 2024. "Understanding temporal dynamics of jumps in cryptocurrency markets: evidence from tick-by-tick data," Digital Finance, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 605-638, December.
    4. Takahiro Hattori & Ryo Ishida, 2021. "The relationship between arbitrage in futures and spot markets and Bitcoin price movements: Evidence from the Bitcoin markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 105-114, January.
    5. 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.
    6. Guo, Weiwei & Intini, Silvia & Jahanshahloo, Hossein, 2025. "Bitcoin arbitrage and exchange default risk," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Dunbar, Kwamie & Owusu-Amoako, Johnson, 2022. "Cryptocurrency returns under empirical asset pricing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. Chen, Yu-Lun & Xu, Ke & Yang, J. Jimmy, 2025. "Market impact of the bitcoin ETF introduction on bitcoin futures," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    9. Helder Miguel Correia Virtuoso Sebastião & Paulo José Osório Rupino Da Cunha & Pedro Manuel Cortesão Godinho, 2021. "Cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Overview and future perspectives," International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 21(3), pages 305-342.
    10. Muhammad Anas & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Larisa Yarovaya, 2024. "The use of high-frequency data in cryptocurrency research: a meta-review of literature with bibliometric analysis," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 1-31, December.
    11. Julien Chevallier & Dominique Guégan & Stéphane Goutte, 2021. "Is It Possible to Forecast the Price of Bitcoin?," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-44, May.
    12. Jimmy E. Hilliard & Julie T. D. Ngo, 2022. "Bitcoin: jumps, convenience yields, and option prices," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(11), pages 2079-2091, November.
    13. Cynthia Weiyi Cai & Rui Xue & Bi Zhou, 2023. "Cryptocurrency puzzles: a comprehensive review and re-introduction," Journal of Accounting Literature, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(1), pages 26-50, June.
    14. Aurelio F. Bariviera & Ignasi Merediz‐Solà, 2021. "Where Do We Stand In Cryptocurrencies Economic Research? A Survey Based On Hybrid Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 377-407, April.
    15. Klaus Grobys, 2021. "When the blockchain does not block: on hackings and uncertainty in the cryptocurrency market," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(8), pages 1267-1279, August.
    16. Ao Shu & Feiyang Cheng & Jianlei Han & Zini Liang & Zheyao Pan, 2023. "Arbitrage across different Bitcoin exchange venues: Perspectives from investor base and market related events," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(5), pages 5183-5210, December.
    17. Emilio Barucci & Giancarlo Giuffra Moncayo & Daniele Marazzina, 2023. "Market impact and efficiency in cryptoassets markets," Digital Finance, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 519-562, December.
    18. Pietro Saggese & Esther Segalla & Michael Sigmund & Burkhard Raunig & Felix Zangerl & Bernhard Haslhofer, 2023. "Assessing the Solvency of Virtual Asset Service Providers: Are Current Standards Sufficient?," Papers 2309.16408, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2024.
    19. Lepomäki, Laura & Kanniainen, Juho & Hansen, Henri, 2021. "Retaliation in Bitcoin networks," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    20. Kuo-Shing Chen, 2024. "Investigating the Impact of Financial Reporting for Cryptocurrencies on Company Value," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 14(3), pages 1-6.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Box spread; Calendar spread; Inverse option; Put–call parity; Transaction costs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:71:y:2024:i:c:s138641812400048x. 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.