Hedging the downside risk of commodities through cryptocurrencies

Abstract

Today, commodities are exposed to ever-increasing price volatilities due to extreme market uncertainties linked with financialization. The paper addresses a timely question of whether cryptocurrencies are hedge and safe-haven for commodities. We focus on this literature gap by using individual commodities from four groups, including metal, agriculture, precious metal, and energy. Further, we also consider four major cryptocurrencies, namely, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple for our analysis. Our findings show the functional role of cryptocurrencies as hedge and safe-haven for individual commodities. Moreover, the underlying properties are persistent during the crisis period.