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Exogenous Drivers of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Volatility – A Mixed Data Sampling Approach to Forecasting

Author

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  • Walther, Thomas
  • Klein, Tony
  • Bouri, Elie

Abstract

We apply the GARCH-MIDAS framework to forecast the daily, weekly, and monthly volatility of five highly capitalized Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin, Ripple, and Stellar) as well as the Cryptocurrency index CRIX. Based on the prediction quality, we determine the most important exogenous drivers of volatility in Cryptocurrency markets. We find that the Global Real Economic Activity outperforms all other economic and financial drivers under investigation. We also show that the Global Real Economic Activity provides superior volatility predictions for both, bull and bear markets. In addition, the average forecast combination results in low loss functions. This indicates that the information content of exogenous factors is time-varying and the model averaging approach diversifies the impact of single drivers.

Suggested Citation

  • Walther, Thomas & Klein, Tony & Bouri, Elie, 2018. "Exogenous Drivers of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Volatility – A Mixed Data Sampling Approach to Forecasting," QBS Working Paper Series 2018/02, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:qmsrps:201802
    DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3192474
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Cryptocurrencies; GARCH; Mixed Data Sampling; Volatility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C10 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - General
    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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