IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jfinte/v2y2023i2p17-310d1154186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cryptocurrency Markets: A DCCA Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Dora Almeida

    (CEFAGE, IIFA—Center for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics, University of Évora, 7004-516 Évora, Portugal
    VALORIZA—Research Centre for Endogenous Resource Valorization, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal)

  • Andreia Dionísio

    (CEFAGE, IIFA—Center for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics, University of Évora, 7004-516 Évora, Portugal)

  • Paulo Ferreira

    (CEFAGE, IIFA—Center for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics, University of Évora, 7004-516 Évora, Portugal
    VALORIZA—Research Centre for Endogenous Resource Valorization, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal
    Department of Economic Sciences and Organizations, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal)

  • Isabel Vieira

    (CEFAGE, IIFA—Center for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics, University of Évora, 7004-516 Évora, Portugal)

Abstract

Extraordinary events, regardless of their financial or non-financial nature, are a great challenge for financial stability. This study examines the impact of one such occurrence—the COVID-19 pandemic—on cryptocurrency markets. A detrended cross-correlation analysis was performed to evaluate how the links between 16 cryptocurrencies were changed by this event. Cross-correlation coefficients that were calculated before and after the onset of the pandemic were compared, and the statistical significance of their variation was assessed. The analysis results show that the markets of the assessed cryptocurrencies became more integrated. There is also evidence to suggest that the pandemic crisis promoted contagion, mainly across short timescales (with a few exceptions of non-contagion across long timescales). We conclude that, in spite of the distinct characteristics of cryptocurrencies, those in our sample offered no protection against the financial turbulence provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus, our study provided yet another example of ‘correlations breakdown’ in times of crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Dora Almeida & Andreia Dionísio & Paulo Ferreira & Isabel Vieira, 2023. "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cryptocurrency Markets: A DCCA Analysis," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jfinte:v:2:y:2023:i:2:p:17-310:d:1154186
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2674-1032/2/2/17/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2674-1032/2/2/17/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mensi, Walid & Al-Yahyaee, Khamis Hamed & Wanas Al-Jarrah, Idries Mohammad & Vo, Xuan Vinh & Kang, Sang Hoon, 2021. "Does volatility connectedness across major cryptocurrencies behave the same at different frequencies? A portfolio risk analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 96-113.
    2. Imran Yousaf & Shoaib Ali, 2020. "Discovering interlinkages between major cryptocurrencies using high-frequency data: new evidence from COVID-19 pandemic," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Neto, David, 2021. "Are Google searches making the Bitcoin market run amok? A tail event analysis," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Natália Costa & César Silva & Paulo Ferreira, 2019. "Long-Range Behaviour and Correlation in DFA and DCCA Analysis of Cryptocurrencies," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-12, September.
    5. Guedes, E.F. & Brito, A.A. & Oliveira Filho, F.M. & Fernandez, B.F. & de Castro, A.P.N. & da Silva Filho, A.M. & Zebende, G.F., 2018. "Statistical test for ΔρDCCA cross-correlation coefficient," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 501(C), pages 134-140.
    6. Kakinaka, Shinji & Umeno, Ken, 2022. "Asymmetric volatility dynamics in cryptocurrency markets on multi-time scales," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2021. "Tethered, or Untethered? On the interplay between stablecoins and major cryptoassets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    8. Yarovaya, Larisa & Matkovskyy, Roman & Jalan, Akanksha, 2021. "The effects of a “black swan” event (COVID-19) on herding behavior in cryptocurrency markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Muhammad Abubakr Naeem & Saba Qureshi & Mobeen Ur Rehman & Faruk Balli, 2022. "COVID-19 and cryptocurrency market: Evidence from quantile connectedness," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 280-306, January.
    10. Mensi, Walid & Ur Rehman, Mobeen & Maitra, Debasish & Hamed Al-Yahyaee, Khamis & Sensoy, Ahmet, 2020. "Does bitcoin co-move and share risk with Sukuk and world and regional Islamic stock markets? Evidence using a time-frequency approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    11. Bouri, Elie & Gupta, Rangan & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Roubaud, David, 2017. "Does Bitcoin hedge global uncertainty? Evidence from wavelet-based quantile-in-quantile regressions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 87-95.
    12. Marcello Pericoli & Massimo Sbracia, 2003. "A Primer on Financial Contagion," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(4), pages 571-608, September.
    13. Kee-Hong Bae & G. Andrew Karolyi & René M. Stulz, 2003. "A New Approach to Measuring Financial Contagion," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 717-763, July.
    14. Giannellis, Nikolaos, 2022. "Cryptocurrency market connectedness in Covid-19 days and the role of Twitter: Evidence from a smooth transition regression model," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    15. James, Nick & Menzies, Max & Chan, Jennifer, 2021. "Changes to the extreme and erratic behaviour of cryptocurrencies during COVID-19," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 565(C).
    16. Stanis{l}aw Dro.zd.z & Jaros{l}aw Kwapie'n & Pawe{l} O'swik{e}cimka & Tomasz Stanisz & Marcin Wk{a}torek, 2020. "Complexity in economic and social systems: cryptocurrency market at around COVID-19," Papers 2009.10030, arXiv.org.
    17. da Silva, Marcus Fernandes & Leão Pereira, Éder Johnson de Area & da Silva Filho, Aloisio Machado & Nunes de Castro, Arleys Pereira & Miranda, José Garcia Vivas & Zebende, Gilney Figueira, 2015. "Quantifying cross-correlation between Ibovespa and Brazilian blue-chips: The DCCA approach," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 424(C), pages 124-129.
    18. Wang, Gang-Jin & Xie, Chi & Chen, Shou & Yang, Jiao-Jiao & Yang, Ming-Yan, 2013. "Random matrix theory analysis of cross-correlations in the US stock market: Evidence from Pearson’s correlation coefficient and detrended cross-correlation coefficient," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(17), pages 3715-3730.
    19. Koutmos, Dimitrios, 2018. "Return and volatility spillovers among cryptocurrencies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 122-127.
    20. Aktham Maghyereh & Hussein Abdoh, 2022. "COVID-19 and the volatility interlinkage between bitcoin and financial assets," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(6), pages 2875-2901, December.
    21. Goodell, John W. & Goutte, Stephane, 2021. "Co-movement of COVID-19 and Bitcoin: Evidence from wavelet coherence analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    22. Pal, Debdatta & Mitra, Subrata K., 2018. "Interdependence between crude oil and world food prices: A detrended cross correlation analysis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 492(C), pages 1032-1044.
    23. Balcilar, Mehmet & Ozdemir, Huseyin & Agan, Busra, 2022. "Effects of COVID-19 on cryptocurrency and emerging market connectedness: Empirical evidence from quantile, frequency, and lasso networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 604(C).
    24. Bouri, Elie & Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Roubaud, David, 2019. "Co-explosivity in the cryptocurrency market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 178-183.
    25. Qureshi, Saba & Aftab, Muhammad & Bouri, Elie & Saeed, Tareq, 2020. "Dynamic interdependence of cryptocurrency markets: An analysis across time and frequency," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 559(C).
    26. Katsiampa, Paraskevi & Yarovaya, Larisa & Zięba, Damian, 2022. "High-frequency connectedness between Bitcoin and other top-traded crypto assets during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    27. Paulo Ferreira & Éder Pereira, 2019. "Contagion Effect in Cryptocurrency Market," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-8, July.
    28. Zebende, G.F., 2011. "DCCA cross-correlation coefficient: Quantifying level of cross-correlation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(4), pages 614-618.
    29. Zebende, G.F. & Filho, A. Machado, 2009. "Cross-correlation between time series of vehicles and passengers," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(23), pages 4863-4866.
    30. Paulo Ferreira & Andreia Dionisio, 2015. "Revisiting Covered Interest Parity in the European Union: the DCCA Approach," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 597-615, December.
    31. Mensi, Walid & Rehman, Mobeen Ur & Al-Yahyaee, Khamis Hamed & Al-Jarrah, Idries Mohammad Wanas & Kang, Sang Hoon, 2019. "Time frequency analysis of the commonalities between Bitcoin and major Cryptocurrencies: Portfolio risk management implications," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 283-294.
    32. Calvo, Guillermo A. & Mendoza, Enrique G., 2000. "Rational contagion and the globalization of securities markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 79-113, June.
    33. Dimpfl, Thomas & Peter, Franziska J., 2019. "Group transfer entropy with an application to cryptocurrencies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 516(C), pages 543-551.
    34. Assaf, Ata & Charif, Husni & Demir, Ender, 2022. "Information sharing among cryptocurrencies: Evidence from mutual information and approximate entropy during COVID-19," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    35. Warwick McKibbin & Roshen Fernando, 2021. "The Global Macroeconomic Impacts of COVID-19: Seven Scenarios," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 20(2), pages 1-30, Summer.
    36. Elie Bouri & Rangan Gupta & David Roubaud, 2018. "Herding Behaviour in the Cryptocurrency Market," Working Papers 201834, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    37. Yi, Shuyue & Xu, Zishuang & Wang, Gang-Jin, 2018. "Volatility connectedness in the cryptocurrency market: Is Bitcoin a dominant cryptocurrency?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 98-114.
    38. Neha Seth & Laxmidhar Panda, 2018. "Financial contagion: review of empirical literature," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(1), pages 15-70, February.
    39. Corbet, Shaen & Larkin, Charles & Lucey, Brian, 2020. "The contagion effects of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from gold and cryptocurrencies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    40. Paulo Ferreira, 2017. "Portuguese and Brazilian stock market integration: a non-linear and detrended approach," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 16(1), pages 49-63, April.
    41. Kumar, Ashish & Iqbal, Najaf & Mitra, Subrata Kumar & Kristoufek, Ladislav & Bouri, Elie, 2022. "Connectedness among major cryptocurrencies in standard times and during the COVID-19 outbreak," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    42. Ma, Pengcheng & Li, Daye & Li, Shuo, 2016. "Efficiency and cross-correlation in equity market during global financial crisis: Evidence from China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 444(C), pages 163-176.
    43. Conlon, Thomas & Corbet, Shaen & McGee, Richard J., 2020. "Are cryptocurrencies a safe haven for equity markets? An international perspective from the COVID-19 pandemic," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    44. Kuo-Jung Lee & Su-Lien Lu & You Shih, 2018. "Contagion Effect of Natural Disaster and Financial Crisis Events on International Stock Markets," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-25, March.
    45. Le, Trung Hai & Do, Hung Xuan & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Sensoy, Ahmet, 2021. "Covid-19 pandemic and tail-dependency networks of financial assets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    46. Mensi, Walid & El Khoury, Rim & Ali, Syed Riaz Mahmood & Vo, Xuan Vinh & Kang, Sang Hoon, 2023. "Quantile dependencies and connectedness between the gold and cryptocurrency markets: Effects of the COVID-19 crisis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    47. Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Elie Bouri & Sang Hoon Kang & Tareq Saeed, 2021. "Regime specific spillover across cryptocurrencies and the role of COVID-19," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-24, December.
    48. Marion Laboure & Markus H.‐P. Müller & Gerit Heinz & Sagar Singh & Stefan Köhling, 2021. "Cryptocurrencies and CBDC: The Route Ahead," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(5), pages 663-676, November.
    49. Ghulame Rubbaniy & Ali Awais Khalid & Aristeidis Samitas, 2021. "Are Cryptos Safe-Haven Assets during Covid-19? Evidence from Wavelet Coherence Analysis," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(6), pages 1741-1756, May.
    50. Nguyen, Dat Thanh & Phan, Dinh Hoang Bach & Ming, Tee Chwee & Nguyen, Van Ky Long, 2021. "An assessment of how COVID-19 changed the global equity market," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 480-491.
    51. Ji, Qiang & Bouri, Elie & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Roubaud, David, 2019. "Dynamic connectedness and integration in cryptocurrency markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 257-272.
    52. Mohti, Wahbeeah & Dionísio, Andreia & Vieira, Isabel & Ferreira, Paulo, 2019. "Financial contagion analysis in frontier markets: Evidence from the US subprime and the Eurozone debt crises," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 525(C), pages 1388-1398.
    53. Gajardo, Gabriel & Kristjanpoller, Werner D. & Minutolo, Marcel, 2018. "Does Bitcoin exhibit the same asymmetric multifractal cross-correlations with crude oil, gold and DJIA as the Euro, Great British Pound and Yen?," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 195-205.
    54. Cho, Sungjun & Hyde, Stuart & Nguyen, Ngoc, 2015. "Time-varying regional and global integration and contagion: Evidence from style portfolios," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 109-131.
    55. Ahmet Sensoy & Thiago Christiano Silva & Shaen Corbet & Benjamin Miranda Tabak, 2021. "High-frequency return and volatility spillovers among cryptocurrencies," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(37), pages 4310-4328, August.
    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. Balcilar, Mehmet & Ozdemir, Huseyin & Agan, Busra, 2022. "Effects of COVID-19 on cryptocurrency and emerging market connectedness: Empirical evidence from quantile, frequency, and lasso networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 604(C).
    2. Jinxin Cui & Aktham Maghyereh, 2022. "Time–frequency co-movement and risk connectedness among cryptocurrencies: new evidence from the higher-order moments before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-56, December.
    3. Abubakr Naeem, Muhammad & Iqbal, Najaf & Lucey, Brian M. & Karim, Sitara, 2022. "Good versus bad information transmission in the cryptocurrency market: Evidence from high-frequency data," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Assaf, Ata & Mokni, Khaled & Yousaf, Imran & Bhandari, Avishek, 2023. "Long memory in the high frequency cryptocurrency markets using fractal connectivity analysis: The impact of COVID-19," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Demiralay, Sercan & Golitsis, Petros, 2021. "On the dynamic equicorrelations in cryptocurrency market," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 524-533.
    6. Giannellis, Nikolaos, 2022. "Cryptocurrency market connectedness in Covid-19 days and the role of Twitter: Evidence from a smooth transition regression model," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    7. Iqbal, Najaf & Fareed, Zeeshan & Wan, Guangcai & Shahzad, Farrukh, 2021. "Asymmetric nexus between COVID-19 outbreak in the world and cryptocurrency market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    8. Jaros{l}aw Kwapie'n & Marcin Wk{a}torek & Stanis{l}aw Dro.zd.z, 2021. "Cryptocurrency Market Consolidation in 2020--2021," Papers 2112.06552, arXiv.org.
    9. Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Elie Bouri & Sang Hoon Kang & Tareq Saeed, 2021. "Regime specific spillover across cryptocurrencies and the role of COVID-19," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-24, December.
    10. Walid Mensi & Mobeen Ur Rehman & Muhammad Shafiullah & Khamis Hamed Al-Yahyaee & Ahmet Sensoy, 2021. "High frequency multiscale relationships among major cryptocurrencies: portfolio management implications," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-21, December.
    11. Marcin Wk{a}torek & Jaros{l}aw Kwapie'n & Stanis{l}aw Dro.zd.z, 2023. "Cryptocurrencies Are Becoming Part of the World Global Financial Market," Papers 2303.00495, arXiv.org.
    12. Ha, Le Thanh & Nham, Nguyen Thi Hong, 2022. "An application of a TVP-VAR extended joint connected approach to explore connectedness between WTI crude oil, gold, stock and cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 health crisis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    13. Yarovaya, Larisa & Brzeszczyński, Janusz & Goodell, John W. & Lucey, Brian & Lau, Chi Keung Marco, 2022. "Rethinking financial contagion: Information transmission mechanism during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    14. Assaf, Ata & Mokni, Khaled & Youssef, Manel, 2023. "COVID-19 and information flow between cryptocurrencies, and conventional financial assets," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 73-81.
    15. Yousaf, Imran & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2022. "Spillovers between the Islamic gold-backed cryptocurrencies and equity markets during the COVID-19: A sectorial analysis," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    16. Ahmed, Walid M.A., 2021. "How do Islamic equity markets respond to good and bad volatility of cryptocurrencies? The case of Bitcoin," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    17. Shaen Corbet & John W. Goodell & Samet Gunay & Kerem Kaskaloglu, 2023. "Are DeFi tokens a separate asset class from conventional cryptocurrencies?," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 322(2), pages 609-630, March.
    18. Jareño, Francisco & González, María de la O. & López, Raquel & Ramos, Ana Rosa, 2021. "Cryptocurrencies and oil price shocks: A NARDL analysis in the COVID-19 pandemic," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    19. Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Bouri, Elie & Ahmad, Tanveer & Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr, 2022. "Extreme tail network analysis of cryptocurrencies and trading strategies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    20. Assaf, Ata & Charif, Husni & Demir, Ender, 2022. "Information sharing among cryptocurrencies: Evidence from mutual information and approximate entropy during COVID-19," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).

    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:gam:jfinte:v:2:y:2023:i:2:p:17-310:d:1154186. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.