Arbitrage in the market for cryptocurrencies

Abstract

Arbitrage opportunities in markets for cryptocurrencies are well-documented. In this paper, we confirm that they existed; however, their magnitude decreased greatly from April 2018 onward. Analyzing various trading strategies, we show that it is hardly possible to exploit existing price differences since then. We discuss and test several mechanisms that may be responsible for the increased market efficiency and find that, particularly, informed trading is correlated with a reduction in arbitrage opportunities.