The effect of COVID-19 and U.S. monetary policy on Bitcoin and stock market volatility: an application of DCC-GARCH model

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent periods of US monetary policy normalization after quantitative easing during COVID-19, global financial markets have encountered elevated levels of volatility and risk. In response, investors have increasingly sought out unconventional financial assets, such as Bitcoin, to mitigate exposure and enhance portfolio diversification. This study utilizes a Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC) Multivariate GARCH model, specifically employing the GARCH (1,1) specification, to analyze the relationship between stock markets index of major countries and cryptocurrency, with a particular focus on Bitcoin. The results indicate statistically significant correlations between Bitcoin and stock market returns in several countries during the COVID-19 period. Volatility appears to be influenced by historical stock market performance during both the pandemic and the subsequent normalization of monetary policy. Furthermore, the DCC-GARCH models reveal low significant coefficients for ASEAN stock market indices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating that these markets may have displaced Bitcoin as a hedge asset. In contrast, stock market indices in America and Europe consistently show statistical significance across all periods, suggesting that Bitcoin’s role as a hedge in these regions is limited. In contrast, gold clearly demonstrated safe haven properties before the COVID-19 pandemic which a characteristic had not been observed for Bitcoin. However, gold has emerged as a safe haven for only ASEAN stock markets since the U.S. initial 0.25% interest rate hike.