IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pre/wpaper/202166.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Bitcoin Mining Activity and Volatility Dynamics in the Power Market

Author

Listed:
  • Sayar Karmakar

    (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA)

  • Riza Demirer

    (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, IL 62026-1102, USA)

  • Rangan Gupta

    (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa)

Abstract

Utilizing a measure of the Bitcoin network's daily electricity load, we document a significant volatility effect of Bitcoin mining activity in three prominent electricity markets in the U.S. The volatility effect is found to be increasing over time, particularly with the widespread lockdowns enforced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings provide novel insight to the non-virtual side of mining and trading of cryptocurrencies and underscore the need for establishing mechanisms to prevent possible destabilizing effects of this growing industry, both from a power consumption and carbon emissions perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Sayar Karmakar & Riza Demirer & Rangan Gupta, 2021. "Bitcoin Mining Activity and Volatility Dynamics in the Power Market," Working Papers 202166, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pre:wpaper:202166
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Da, Zhi & Huang, Dayong & Yun, Hayong, 2017. "Industrial Electricity Usage and Stock Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 37-69, February.
    2. Clark, Todd E. & West, Kenneth D., 2007. "Approximately normal tests for equal predictive accuracy in nested models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 291-311, May.
    3. Elie Bouri & Mahamitra Das & Rangan Gupta & David Roubaud, 2018. "Spillovers between Bitcoin and other assets during bear and bull markets," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(55), pages 5935-5949, November.
    4. Weron, Rafał, 2014. "Electricity price forecasting: A review of the state-of-the-art with a look into the future," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1030-1081.
    5. Urquhart, Andrew, 2016. "The inefficiency of Bitcoin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 80-82.
    6. Sayar Karmakar & Stefan Richter & Wei Biao Wu, 2020. "Simultaneous inference for time-varying models," Papers 2011.13157, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2021.
    7. Smales, L.A., 2019. "Bitcoin as a safe haven: Is it even worth considering?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 385-393.
    8. Weron, Rafal & Misiorek, Adam, 2008. "Forecasting spot electricity prices: A comparison of parametric and semiparametric time series models," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 744-763.
    9. Bouri, Elie & Molnár, Peter & Azzi, Georges & Roubaud, David & Hagfors, Lars Ivar, 2017. "On the hedge and safe haven properties of Bitcoin: Is it really more than a diversifier?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 192-198.
    10. Elie Bouri & Riza Demirer & Rangan Gupta & Jacobus Nel, 2021. "COVID-19 Pandemic and Investor Herding in International Stock Markets," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-11, September.
    11. Scharnowski, Stefan, 2021. "Understanding Bitcoin liquidity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    12. Francq, Christian & Thieu, Le Quyen, 2019. "Qml Inference For Volatility Models With Covariates," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 37-72, February.
    13. Matteo Bonato & Riza Demirer & Rangan Gupta, 2016. "The Predictive Power of Industrial Electricity Usage Revisited: Evidence from Nonparametric Causality Tests," Working Papers 201679, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    14. Alexander Guzmán & Christian Pinto-Gutiérrez & María-Andrea Trujillo, 2021. "Trading Cryptocurrencies as a Pandemic Pastime: COVID-19 Lockdowns and Bitcoin Volume," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(15), pages 1-15, July.
    15. Park, Beum-Jo, 2022. "The COVID-19 pandemic, volatility, and trading behavior in the bitcoin futures market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    16. Divakaruni, Anantha & Zimmerman, Peter, 2021. "Uncovering Retail Trading in Bitcoin: The Impact of COVID-19 Stimulus Checks," SocArXiv khw8a, Center for Open Science.
    17. Aalborg, Halvor Aarhus & Molnár, Peter & de Vries, Jon Erik, 2019. "What can explain the price, volatility and trading volume of Bitcoin?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 255-265.
    18. Sayar Karmakar & Arkaprava Roy, 2020. "Bayesian modelling of time-varying conditional heteroscedasticity," Papers 2009.06007, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2021.
    19. Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Bouri, Elie & Roubaud, David & Kristoufek, Ladislav & Lucey, Brian, 2019. "Is Bitcoin a better safe-haven investment than gold and commodities?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 322-330.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yazıcı, Ali Fırat & Olcay, Ali Bahadır & Arkalı Olcay, Gökçen, 2023. "A framework for maintaining sustainable energy use in Bitcoin mining through switching efficient mining hardware," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. Sibande, Xolani & Demirer, Riza & Balcilar, Mehmet & Gupta, Rangan, 2023. "On the pricing effects of bitcoin mining in the fossil fuel market: The case of coal," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    3. Anatolyy Dzyuba & Irina Solovyeva & Dmitry Konopelko, 2023. "Managing Electricity Costs in Industrial Mining and Cryptocurrency Data Centers," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(4), pages 76-90, July.
    4. Kejin Wu & Sayar Karmakar, 2023. "GARHCX-NoVaS: A Model-free Approach to Incorporate Exogenous Variables," Papers 2308.13346, arXiv.org.
    5. Sarker, Provash Kumer & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Pradhan, Ashis Kumar, 2023. "Asymmetric effects of climate policy uncertainty and energy prices on bitcoin prices," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 2(2).

    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. Sharif, Arshian & Brahim, Mariem & Dogan, Eyup & Tzeremes, Panayiotis, 2023. "Analysis of the spillover effects between green economy, clean and dirty cryptocurrencies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    2. Parthajit Kayal & Purnima Rohilla, 2021. "Bitcoin in the economics and finance literature: a survey," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(7), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Khaki, Audil & Prasad, Mason & Al-Mohamad, Somar & Bakry, Walid & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2023. "Re-evaluating portfolio diversification and design using cryptocurrencies: Are decentralized cryptocurrencies enough?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Kliber, Agata & Marszałek, Paweł & Musiałkowska, Ida & Świerczyńska, Katarzyna, 2019. "Bitcoin: Safe haven, hedge or diversifier? Perception of bitcoin in the context of a country’s economic situation — A stochastic volatility approach," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 524(C), pages 246-257.
    5. Achraf Ghorbel & Wajdi Frikha & Yasmine Snene Manzli, 2022. "Testing for asymmetric non-linear short- and long-run relationships between crypto-currencies and stock markets," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 12(3), pages 387-425, September.
    6. 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.
    7. Yue, Yao & Li, Xuerong & Zhang, Dingxuan & Wang, Shouyang, 2021. "How cryptocurrency affects economy? A network analysis using bibliometric methods," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    8. Hanif, Waqas & Areola Hernandez, Jose & Troster, Victor & Kang, Sang Hoon & Yoon, Seong-Min, 2022. "Nonlinear dependence and spillovers between cryptocurrency and global/regional equity markets," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Isah, Kazeem O. & Raheem, Ibrahim D., 2019. "The hidden predictive power of cryptocurrencies and QE: Evidence from US stock market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 536(C).
    10. Sinda Hadhri, 2021. "Fear of the Coronavirus and Cryptocurrencies' returns," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(3), pages 2041-2054.
    11. Huynh, Toan Luu Duc & Hille, Erik & Nasir, Muhammad Ali, 2020. "Diversification in the age of the 4th industrial revolution: The role of artificial intelligence, green bonds and cryptocurrencies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    12. 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.
    13. 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).
    14. Conlon, Thomas & McGee, Richard, 2020. "Safe haven or risky hazard? Bitcoin during the Covid-19 bear market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    15. Chu, Jeffrey & Chan, Stephen & Zhang, Yuanyuan, 2021. "Bitcoin versus high-performance technology stocks in diversifying against global stock market indices," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 580(C).
    16. Ahmed, Walid M.A., 2022. "Robust drivers of Bitcoin price movements: An extreme bounds analysis," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    17. Ahmed, Walid M.A. & Al Mafrachi, Mustafa, 2021. "Do higher-order realized moments matter for cryptocurrency returns?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 483-499.
    18. Pho, Kim Hung & Ly, Sel & Lu, Richard & Hoang, Thi Hong Van & Wong, Wing-Keung, 2021. "Is Bitcoin a better portfolio diversifier than gold? A copula and sectoral analysis for China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    19. Dunbar, Kwamie & Owusu-Amoako, Johnson, 2022. "Hedging the extreme risk of cryptocurrency," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    20. Fernandes, Leonardo H.S. & Bouri, Elie & Silva, José W.L. & Bejan, Lucian & de Araujo, Fernando H.A., 2022. "The resilience of cryptocurrency market efficiency to COVID-19 shock," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 607(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Time-varying; GARCH; Bitcoin; Electricity returns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

    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:pre:wpaper:202166. 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: Rangan Gupta (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/decupza.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.