IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/riibaf/v77y2025ipbs0275531925002089.html

Stylized facts of GameFi

Author

Listed:
  • Jia, Boxiang
  • Shen, Dehua

Abstract

This paper investigates the stylized facts of GameFi, a rapidly growing segment within the blockchain and gaming industries. Our empirical results show that GameFi exhibits heavy-tail distributions, short-term autocorrelations, volatility clustering and reverse leverage effects. We also observe long-range dependence in both returns and volatility, which suggests that shocks to GameFi markets can have persistent effects over time. By testing the power-law correlation between price and volume, we show that high trading volumes tend to be associated with significant price movements. Hence, our findings highlight that GameFi tokens share several fundamental stylized facts align with traditional financial markets, even though they refer to a relatively new and emerging asset class.

Suggested Citation

  • Jia, Boxiang & Shen, Dehua, 2025. "Stylized facts of GameFi," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(PB).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:77:y:2025:i:pb:s0275531925002089
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102952
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0275531925002089
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102952?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. He, Ling-Yun & Chen, Shu-Peng, 2011. "A new approach to quantify power-law cross-correlation and its application to commodity markets," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(21), pages 3806-3814.
    2. Proelss, Juliane & Sévigny, Stéphane & Schweizer, Denis, 2023. "GameFi: The perfect symbiosis of blockchain, tokens, DeFi, and NFTs?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Glosten, Lawrence R & Jagannathan, Ravi & Runkle, David E, 1993. "On the Relation between the Expected Value and the Volatility of the Nominal Excess Return on Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1779-1801, December.
    4. Bollerslev, Tim, 1986. "Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 307-327, April.
    5. Xiuwen Chen & Xiaolei Sun & Jianping Li, 2020. "How does economic policy uncertainty react to oil price shocks? A multi-scale perspective," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 188-193, February.
    6. Li, Xiang & Su, Dan, 2020. "How does economic policy uncertainty affect corporate debt maturity?," IWH Discussion Papers 6/2020, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    7. Jia, Boxiang & Goodell, John W. & Shen, Dehua, 2022. "Momentum or reversal: Which is the appropriate third factor for cryptocurrencies?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    8. Wang, Pengfei & Li, Xiao & Shen, Dehua & Zhang, Wei, 2020. "How does economic policy uncertainty affect the bitcoin market?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    9. Wei, Wang Chun, 2018. "Liquidity and market efficiency in cryptocurrencies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 21-24.
    10. Bariviera, Aurelio F. & Basgall, María José & Hasperué, Waldo & Naiouf, Marcelo, 2017. "Some stylized facts of the Bitcoin market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 484(C), pages 82-90.
    11. Karpoff, Jonathan M., 1987. "The Relation between Price Changes and Trading Volume: A Survey," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 109-126, March.
    12. Wei Zhang & Pengfei Wang & Xiao Li & Dehua Shen, 2018. "Some stylized facts of the cryptocurrency market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(55), pages 5950-5965, November.
    13. Shi, Guiqiang & Goodell, John W. & Shen, Dehua, 2024. "Investor attention and GameFi returns: A transfer entropy analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    14. Noemi Schmitt & Frank Westerhoff, 2017. "Herding behaviour and volatility clustering in financial markets," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(8), pages 1187-1203, August.
    15. J. Doyne Farmer & Fabrizio Lillo, 2003. "On the origin of power law tails in price fluctuations," Papers cond-mat/0309416, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2004.
    16. Ghosh, Bikramaditya & Bouri, Elie & Wee, Jung Bum & Zulfiqar, Noshaba, 2023. "Return and volatility properties: Stylized facts from the universe of cryptocurrencies and NFTs," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Franke, Reiner & Westerhoff, Frank, 2012. "Structural stochastic volatility in asset pricing dynamics: Estimation and model contest," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1193-1211.
    18. Bo, Congcong & Shen, Dehua, 2023. "The road less travelled: GameFi as a hedge or a safe haven for international indices," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    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. Wei Zhang & Pengfei Wang & Xiao Li & Dehua Shen, 2018. "Some stylized facts of the cryptocurrency market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(55), pages 5950-5965, November.
    2. Nikolaos A. Kyriazis, 2019. "A Survey on Efficiency and Profitable Trading Opportunities in Cryptocurrency Markets," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Bergsli, Lykke Øverland & Lind, Andrea Falk & Molnár, Peter & Polasik, Michał, 2022. "Forecasting volatility of Bitcoin," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    4. Shi, Guiqiang & Goodell, John W. & Shen, Dehua, 2024. "Return volatility and trading volume of GameFi," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    5. Bai, Lan & Wei, Yu & Wei, Guiwu & Li, Xiafei & Zhang, Songyun, 2021. "Infectious disease pandemic and permanent volatility of international stock markets: A long-term perspective," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    6. Yan, Kai & Zhang, Wei & Shen, Dehua, 2020. "Stylized facts of the carbon emission market in China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 555(C).
    7. Hasan, Md. Bokhtiar & Hassan, M. Kabir & Alhomaidi, Asem, 2023. "How do sectoral Islamic equity markets react to geopolitical risk, economic policy uncertainty, and oil price shocks?," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    8. Chan, Stephen & Chandrashekhar, Durga & Almazloum, Ward & Zhang, Yuanyuan & Lord, Nicholas & Osterrieder, Joerg & Chu, Jeffrey, 2024. "Stylized facts of metaverse non-fungible tokens," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 653(C).
    9. Nedved, Martin & Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2023. "Safe havens for Bitcoin," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    10. Tetsuya Takaishi, 2021. "Time-varying properties of asymmetric volatility and multifractality in Bitcoin," Papers 2102.07425, arXiv.org.
    11. Aharon, David Y. & Demir, Ender & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Zaremba, Adam, 2022. "Twitter-Based uncertainty and cryptocurrency returns," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    12. Kakinaka, Shinji & Umeno, Ken, 2021. "Exploring asymmetric multifractal cross-correlations of price–volatility and asymmetric volatility dynamics in cryptocurrency markets," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 581(C).
    13. Jiang, Yonghong & Wu, Lanxin & Tian, Gengyu & Nie, He, 2021. "Do cryptocurrencies hedge against EPU and the equity market volatility during COVID-19? – New evidence from quantile coherency analysis," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    14. Bouteska, Ahmed & Sharif, Taimur & Isskandarani, Layal & Abedin, Mohammad Zoynul, 2025. "Market efficiency and its determinants: Macro-level dynamics and micro-level characteristics of cryptocurrencies," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    15. Diniz-Maganini, Natalia & Diniz, Eduardo H. & Rasheed, Abdul A., 2021. "Bitcoin’s price efficiency and safe haven properties during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparison," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    16. Mehmet Dicle & John Levendis, 2014. "The day-of-the-week effect revisited: international evidence," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 38(3), pages 407-437, July.
    17. 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.
    18. Kreuzer, Christian & Laschinger, Ralf & Priberny, Christopher & Benninghoff, Sven, 2024. "Cryptocurrencies as a vehicle for capital exodus: Evidence from the Russian–Ukrainian crisis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PB).
    19. Toshiyuki Yamawake & Joseph Sheely & Roberto Serrano & Jiro Hodoshima, 2026. "Comparative performance of cryptocurrencies through the Aumann–Serrano economic index of riskiness," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 357(1), pages 347-372, February.
    20. Zhou, Siwen, 2018. "Exploring the Driving Forces of the Bitcoin Exchange Rate Dynamics: An EGARCH Approach," MPRA Paper 89445, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:riibaf:v:77:y:2025:i:pb:s0275531925002089. 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/ribaf .

    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.