Does global economic uncertainty matter for the volatility and hedging effectiveness of Bitcoin?

Abstract

We assess whether the long-run volatilities of Bitcoin, global equities, commodities, and bonds are affected by global economic policy uncertainty. Empirical results provide evidence supporting that, except for the case of bonds. We further examine whether the correlation between Bitcoin and global equities, commodities, and bonds are affected by global economic policy uncertainty and the results reveal that global economic policy uncertainty has a negative significant impact on the Bitcoin-bonds correlation, and a positive impact on both Bitcoin-equities and Bitcoin-commodities correlations, suggesting a possibility for Bitcoin to act as a hedge under specific economic uncertainty conditions. Interestingly, the hedging effectiveness of Bitcoin for both global equities and global bonds enhances slightly after considering the level of global economic policy uncertainty. Implications for investors and policy-makers are discussed.