IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/119646.html

Tokenomics: How “Risky” are the Stablecoins?

Author

Listed:
  • Shah, Anand
  • Bahri, Anu

Abstract

This study proposes a new risk measure for stablecoins, that is based on the probability of the stablecoin’s price hitting a threshold exchange rate post which the stablecoin is subjected to the risk of “break the buck/ death spiral”. We also juxtapose the risk measure computed using different models - Vasicek, CIR, ARMA+GARCH and Vasicek+GARCH and suggest the policy implication of the estimated model parameters - rate of reversion (a) and long term mean exchange rate (b) for stablecoin issuers. The study compares the volatility behaviour of the stablecoins with that of the traditional cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, equity index, NASDAQ composite and fiat currency, EURO. Stablecoins tend to be “stable” barring the events such as Terra – Luna crisis, FTX Bankruptcy and Silicon Valley Bank crisis. Traditional asset backed stablecoins – Tether, USD Coin, Binance USD and True USD are less risky than the decentralized algorithmic stablecoin, FRAX and decentralized cryptoasset backed stablecoin, DAI. The proposed risk measure could be of utility to the stablecoin issuers of algorithmic and cryptoasset backed stablecoins and the regulators for setting the capital requirement to guard against the break the buck/ death spiral risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Shah, Anand & Bahri, Anu, 2023. "Tokenomics: How “Risky” are the Stablecoins?," MPRA Paper 119646, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:119646
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/119646/1/MPRA_paper_119646.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bullmann, Dirk & Klemm, Jonas & Pinna, Andrea, 2019. "In search for stability in crypto-assets: are stablecoins the solution?," Occasional Paper Series 230, European Central Bank.
    2. Lorenzo Cappiello & Robert F. Engle & Kevin Sheppard, 2006. "Asymmetric Dynamics in the Correlations of Global Equity and Bond Returns," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 537-572.
    3. Uhlig, Harald, 2022. "A Luna-tic Stablecoin Crash," CEPR Discussion Papers 17465, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Heston, Steven L, 1993. "A Closed-Form Solution for Options with Stochastic Volatility with Applications to Bond and Currency Options," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(2), pages 327-343.
    5. Shah, Anand, 2022. "Valuation of Loyalty Tokens," MPRA Paper 111986, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Bekaert, Geert & Wu, Guojun, 2000. "Asymmetric Volatility and Risk in Equity Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(1), pages 1-42.
    7. Zakoian, Jean-Michel, 1994. "Threshold heteroskedastic models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 931-955, September.
    8. 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.
    9. Bollerslev, Tim, 1986. "Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 307-327, April.
    10. Vasicek, Oldrich, 1977. "An equilibrium characterization of the term structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 177-188, November.
    11. Vasicek, Oldrich Alfonso, 1977. "Abstract: An Equilibrium Characterization of the Term Structure," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 627-627, November.
    12. Vo, Lai Van & Le, Huong Thi Thu, 2023. "From Hero to Zero: The case of Silicon Valley Bank," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    13. Lyons, Richard K. & Viswanath-Natraj, Ganesh, 2023. "What keeps stablecoins stable?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    14. Baur, Dirk G. & Hoang, Lai T., 2021. "A crypto safe haven against Bitcoin," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(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. Shah, Anand & Bahri, Anu, 2022. "Metanomics: Adaptive market and volatility behaviour in Metaverse," MPRA Paper 114442, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Turan Bali, 2007. "Modeling the dynamics of interest rate volatility with skewed fat-tailed distributions," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 151-178, April.
    3. Pagan, Adrian, 1996. "The econometrics of financial markets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 15-102, May.
    4. Chikashi Tsuji, 2016. "Does the fear gauge predict downside risk more accurately than econometric models? Evidence from the US stock market," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1220711-122, December.
    5. Ji, Hao & Naeem, Muhammad & Zhang, Jing & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar, 2024. "Dynamic dependence and spillover among the energy related ETFs: From the hedging effectiveness perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    6. Ender Su & John Bilson, 2011. "Trading asymmetric trend and volatility by leverage trend GARCH in Taiwan stock index," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(26), pages 3891-3905.
    7. Chuong Luong & Nikolai Dokuchaev, 2018. "Forecasting of Realised Volatility with the Random Forests Algorithm," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, October.
    8. Henryk Gurgul & Robert Syrek, 2023. "Contagion between selected European indexes during the Covid-19 pandemic," Operations Research and Decisions, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 33(1), pages 47-59.
    9. Lukáš Frýd, 2018. "Asymetrie během finančních krizí: asymetrická volatilita převyšuje důležitost asymetrické korelace [Asymmetry of Financial Time Series During the Financial Crisis: Asymmetric Volatility Outperforms the Asymmetric Importance of Correlation]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2018(3), pages 302-329.
    10. Amira, Khaled & Taamouti, Abderrahim & Tsafack, Georges, 2011. "What drives international equity correlations? Volatility or market direction?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1234-1263, October.
    11. Gonzalo Cortazar & Alejandro Bernales & Diether Beuermann, 2005. "Methodology and Implementation of Value-at-Risk Measures in Emerging Fixed-Income Markets with Infrequent Trading," Finance 0512030, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Lee, Yi-Hsi & Chiu, Yu-Fen & Hsieh, Ming-Hua, 2025. "Stablecoin depegging risk prediction," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. Nikolaos Antonakakis & Ioannis Chatziantoniou & David Gabauer, 2021. "The impact of Euro through time: Exchange rate dynamics under different regimes," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 1375-1408, January.
    14. Kozarski, R., 2013. "Pricing and hedging in the VIX derivative market," Other publications TiSEM 221fefe0-241e-4914-b6bd-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Jones Paul M. & O’Steen Haley, 2018. "Time-varying correlations and Sharpe ratios during quantitative easing," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 1-11, February.
    16. Choi, Jaewon & Richardson, Matthew, 2016. "The volatility of a firm's assets and the leverage effect," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 254-277.
    17. Nikolaos A. Kyriazis, 2021. "A Survey on Volatility Fluctuations in the Decentralized Cryptocurrency Financial Assets," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-46, June.
    18. Výrost, Tomáš & Lyócsa, Štefan & Baumöhl, Eduard, 2015. "Granger causality stock market networks: Temporal proximity and preferential attachment," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 427(C), pages 262-276.
    19. Krzysztof DRACHAL, 2017. "Volatility Clustering, Leverage Effects and Risk-Return Tradeoff in the Selected Stock Markets in the CEE Countries," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(3), pages 37-53, September.
    20. Madhusudan Karmakar, 2007. "Asymmetric Volatility and Risk-return Relationship in the Indian Stock Market," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 8(1), pages 99-116, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:119646. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.