IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/ifwedp/201916.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Metcalfe's law and herding behaviour in the cryptocurrencies market

Author

Listed:
  • Pele, Daniel Traian
  • Mazurencu-Marinescu-Pele, Miruna

Abstract

In this paper, the authors investigate the statistical properties of some cryptocurrencies by using three layers of analysis: alpha-stable distributions, Metcalfe's law and the bubble behaviour through the LPPL modelling. The results show, in the medium to long-run, the validity of Metcalfe's law (the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system) for the evaluation of cryptocurrencies; however, in the short-run, the validity of Metcalfe's law for Bitcoin is questionable. As the results showed a potential for herding behaviour, the authors then used LPPL models to capture the behaviour of cryptocurrencies exchange rates during an endogenous bubble and to predict the most probable time of the regime switching. The main conclusion is that Metcalfe's law may be valid in the long-run, however in the short-run, on various data regimes, its validity is highly debatable.

Suggested Citation

  • Pele, Daniel Traian & Mazurencu-Marinescu-Pele, Miruna, 2019. "Metcalfe's law and herding behaviour in the cryptocurrencies market," Economics Discussion Papers 2019-16, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201916
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/discussionpapers/2019-16
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/193179/1/1066775478.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leo Hove, 2014. "Metcalfe’s law: not so wrong after all," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, July.
    2. Madureira, António & den Hartog, Frank & Bouwman, Harry & Baken, Nico, 2013. "Empirical validation of Metcalfe’s law: How Internet usage patterns have changed over time," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 246-256.
    3. Yechen Zhu & David Dickinson & Jianjun Li, 2017. "Erratum to: Analysis on the influence factors of Bitcoin’s price based on VEC model," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 3(1), pages 1-1, December.
    4. Fantazzini, Dean & Nigmatullin, Erik & Sukhanovskaya, Vera & Ivliev, Sergey, 2016. "Everything you always wanted to know about bitcoin modelling but were afraid to ask. I," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 44, pages 5-24.
    5. Toda, Hiro Y. & Yamamoto, Taku, 1995. "Statistical inference in vector autoregressions with possibly integrated processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1-2), pages 225-250.
    6. Daniel T. Pele, 2012. "An Lppl Algorithm For Estimating The Critical Time Of A Stock Market Bubble," Journal of Social and Economic Statistics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(2), pages 14-22, DECEMBER.
    7. Trimborn, Simon & Härdle, Wolfgang Karl, 2018. "CRIX an Index for cryptocurrencies," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 107-122.
    8. Anders Johansen & Olivier Ledoit & Didier Sornette, 2000. "Crashes As Critical Points," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 219-255.
    9. 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.
    10. Yechen Zhu & David Dickinson & Jianjun Li, 2017. "Analysis on the influence factors of Bitcoin’s price based on VEC model," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 3(1), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Spencer Wheatley & Didier Sornette & Tobias Huber & Max Reppen & Robert N. Gantner, 2018. "Are Bitcoin Bubbles Predictable? Combining a Generalized Metcalfe's Law and the LPPLS Model," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 18-22, Swiss Finance Institute, revised Mar 2018.
    12. Spencer Wheatley & Didier Sornette & Tobias Huber & Max Reppen & Robert N. Gantner, 2018. "Are Bitcoin Bubbles Predictable? Combining a Generalized Metcalfe's Law and the LPPLS Model," Papers 1803.05663, arXiv.org.
    13. Chen, Cathy Yi-Hsuan & Härdle, Wolfgang Karl & Hou, Ai Jun & Wang, Weining, 2018. "Pricing Cryptocurrency options: the case of CRIX and Bitcoin," IRTG 1792 Discussion Papers 2018-004, Humboldt University of Berlin, International Research Training Group 1792 "High Dimensional Nonstationary Time Series".
    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. Pele, Daniel Traian & Mazurencu-Marinescu-Pele, Miruna, 2018. "Cryptocurrencies, Metcalfe's law and LPPL models," IRTG 1792 Discussion Papers 2018-056, Humboldt University of Berlin, International Research Training Group 1792 "High Dimensional Nonstationary Time Series".
    2. Pele, Daniel Traian & Mazurencu-Marinescu-Pele, Miruna, 2019. "Metcalfe's law and log-period power laws in the cryptocurrencies market," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 13, pages 1-26.
    3. Xiong, Jinwu & Liu, Qing & Zhao, Lei, 2020. "A new method to verify Bitcoin bubbles: Based on the production cost," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    4. Zhang, Wei & Li, Yi & Xiong, Xiong & Wang, Pengfei, 2021. "Downside risk and the cross-section of cryptocurrency returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Li, Mu-Yao & Cai, Qing & Gu, Gao-Feng & Zhou, Wei-Xing, 2019. "Exponentially decayed double power-law distribution of Bitcoin trade sizes," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 535(C).
    6. Rodrigo Hakim das Neves, 2020. "Bitcoin pricing: impact of attractiveness variables," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Alexandre Bovet & Carlo Campajola & Jorge F. Lazo & Francesco Mottes & Iacopo Pozzana & Valerio Restocchi & Pietro Saggese & Nicol'o Vallarano & Tiziano Squartini & Claudio J. Tessone, 2018. "Network-based indicators of Bitcoin bubbles," Papers 1805.04460, arXiv.org.
    8. Alla A. Petukhina & Raphael C. G. Reule & Wolfgang Karl Härdle, 2021. "Rise of the machines? Intraday high-frequency trading patterns of cryptocurrencies," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 8-30, January.
    9. Xun Zhang & Fengbin Lu & Rui Tao & Shouyang Wang, 2021. "The time-varying causal relationship between the Bitcoin market and internet attention," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-19, December.
    10. Ting-Hsuan Chen & Mu-Yen Chen & Guan-Ting Du, 2021. "The Determinants of Bitcoin’s Price: Utilization of GARCH and Machine Learning Approaches," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 57(1), pages 267-280, January.
    11. Gidea, Marian & Goldsmith, Daniel & Katz, Yuri & Roldan, Pablo & Shmalo, Yonah, 2020. "Topological recognition of critical transitions in time series of cryptocurrencies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 548(C).
    12. M. Eren Akbiyik & Mert Erkul & Killian Kaempf & Vaiva Vasiliauskaite & Nino Antulov-Fantulin, 2021. "Ask "Who", Not "What": Bitcoin Volatility Forecasting with Twitter Data," Papers 2110.14317, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    13. Serdar Neslihanoglu, 2021. "Linearity extensions of the market model: a case of the top 10 cryptocurrency prices during the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, December.
    14. Yaya, OlaOluwa S. & Lukman, Adewale F. & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2022. "Persistence and volatility spillovers of bitcoin price to gold and silver prices," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    15. Panagiotidis, Theodore & Papapanagiotou, Georgios & Stengos, Thanasis, 2024. "A Bayesian approach for the determinants of bitcoin returns," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    16. Qin, Meng & Su, Chi-Wei & Tao, Ran, 2021. "BitCoin: A new basket for eggs?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 896-907.
    17. Burcu Kapar & Jose Olmo, 2021. "Analysis of Bitcoin prices using market and sentiment variables," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 45-63, January.
    18. 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.
    19. Yuze Li & Shangrong Jiang & Xuerong Li & Shouyang Wang, 2022. "Hybrid data decomposition-based deep learning for Bitcoin prediction and algorithm trading," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, December.
    20. C. Vladimir Rodríguez-Caballero & Mauricio Villanueva-Domínguez, 2022. "Predicting cryptocurrency crash dates," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(6), pages 2855-2873, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cryptocurrency; Bitcoin; CRIX; Log-Periodic Power Law; Metcalfe's Law; Stable Distribution; Herding;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes
    • 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
    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics
    • E41 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Demand for Money
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E47 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • G17 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Financial Forecasting and Simulation

    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:zbw:ifwedp:201916. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwkiede.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.