Are cryptocurrencies connected to forex? A quantile cross-spectral approach

This paper aims to elucidate the connectedness between major forex currencies and cryptocurrencies using the quantile cross-spectral approach recently proposed by Baruník and Kley (2015). The sample covers six forex currencies and six cryptocurrencies over the period of 1 September 2015 to 29 December 2017. Compared with the results obtained from standard correlations and detrended moving-average cross-correlation analysis (DMCA), the quantile cross-spectral approach provides richer information on the dependence structure across different quantiles and frequencies. The most interesting result is that the intra-group dependencies are positive in the lower extreme quantiles, while inter-group dependencies are negative. This result holds in both the short- and long-term perspectives. Thus, it is worth diversifying between these two currency groups.