Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have recently rekindled discussions in financial circles, both due to their technologies and price movements. The increasing inclination of investors who seek returns and embrace risk towards cryptocurrency markets is evident, driven by sudden price fluctuations. The potential of cryptocurrencies to serve as alternatives to traditional investment instruments continues to be debated within the financial framework. Researchers are persistently exploring financial instruments associated with the price fluctuations of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. This study investigates the interest in Bitcoin in Türkiye within the scope of Bitcoin trading volume and the "Bitcoin" search results on Google Trends. Bitcoin trade volume of BTCTurk and Paribu, two cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Türkiye, and Bitcoin search data on Google were included in the study. In this context, the long-term relationship between Bitcoin trading volume and Google Trends results is examined using the Engle-Granger cointegration test, and the existence of causality is explored through the Toda-Yamamoto causality test. According to the findings of the study, a cointegration relationship among the variables is identified. It is revealed that there is no bidirectional causality between Bitcoin trading volume and Google Trends search results. However, it is established that Google Trends is the cause of Bitcoin trading volume.
Purpose: This article clarifies the factors influencing individual investors' Bitcoin investments in the Vietnamese stock market. Design/methodology/approach: We employed the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a comprehensive survey with 300 responses, and quantitative analysis using SmartPLS from December 2022 to March 2023. Findings: The findings reveal that the perceived usefulness of the Bitcoin market, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and herd behavior positively impact the Bitcoin investment decisions of individual investors in Vietnam. Research, Practical & Social Implications: This study provides regulators and relevant agencies with more practical evidence regarding the Bitcoin market, facilitating the formulation of appropriate management policies in an emerging economy. Originality/value: There is a shortage of research on the Bitcoin cryptocurrency investment market from the perspective of individual investors in emerging countries like Vietnam. Therefore, this study tries to shed light on individual investors with a comprehensive and objective overview to consider before making investment decisions. Additionally, the results can offer managers and relevant agencies empirical evidence to promulgate future regulations on the Bitcoin market.
The aim of this study is to examine whether the assets known as safe-haven assets during crises fulfill these qualities for equity investors in Turkey during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the results obtained under the assumption of GJR-GARCH (1,1) error terms, no asset has shown safe-haven characteristics against the stock market. However, when the BIST100 index depreciates by 5%, Ethereum, silver and Government Bonds show strong safe-haven characteristics, US dollar and Euro show weak safe-haven characteristics. When the BIST100 index depreciates by 2.5%, Bitcoin, gold and DJIMTR show weak safe haven asset characteristics. If BIST100 depreciates by 1%, gold and Government Bonds show strong safe-haven characteristics, and Bitcoin, Ethereum, Silver, the US dollar and Euro show weak safe-haven characteristics.
In recent years, both researchers and internet users have been attracted to the concept of blockchain technology for transforming smart Bangladesh. This study focuses on the possibilities of blockchain technology leading to the transformation of Bangladesh into a smart nation. This article also explains the working procedure and potential usage of the blockchain concept in Bangladesh. The study is mainly focused on qualitative approaches. The researcher used the PRISMA 2020 platform to identify and choose relevant studies and reports from indexed publications. As the idea of block chain technology is very new and not being adopted by all the sectors of Bangladesh's economy, that’s why only secondary data were used to conduct the study. The researcher has tried to find the different potential areas of blockchain technology from such developing countries like Bangladesh. The potential areas, such as the supply chain management, voting system, and health care industry, where blockchain can be implemented by introducing different polices and regulations. From the implication point of view, blockchain technology might be implemented to transform smart Bangladesh within 2041 if adequate regulations can be undertaken by concerned authority. This revolutionary technology has great potential and has recently caused upheaval. Based on the descriptive study, some of the relevant recommendations including suggestions for reducing challenges of using blockchain are discussed and future research works can be continued in both academic and business sectors in Bangladesh based on this finding.
Ritesh Patel, Mariya Gubareva, Muhammad Zubair Chishti, Тамара Теплова
This paper studies dynamic connectedness between four prominent healthcare cryptocurrencies, namely MediBloc, MediShares, Medicalchain, and Dentacoin, and bond, equity, and commodity markets along with USD and Bitcoin. The daily data span from February 2018 to April 2023. We applied the quantile VAR method and the wavelet quantile correlation approach to measure the connectedness. The quantile VAR method reveals a strengthening interrelation among the assets during COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine military conflict, while the wavelet quantile correlation highlights the existing diversification opportunities. To test portfolio performance, we resort to minimum variance portfolio, minimum correlation portfolio and the recently developed minimum connectedness portfolio techniques. The minimum variance portfolio is best performing portfolio with highest Sharpe ratio. In addition, considering the minimum connectedness and minimum correlation portfolios, the exposure to healthcare cryptocurrencies also improves portfolio diversification. Based on the hedging effectiveness, we show that the investment in the healthcare cryptocurrencies reduces the volatility for all the selected portfolios though currently in a limited degree. However, the investors are advised to regularly monitor their asset allocation as, with the passage of time, the strength of hedging attributes may change. Our study provides important implications for policymakers and the portfolio managers.
Yoochan Kim, Erkan Topal, Apurna Ghosh, Mohammad Waqar Ali Asad
COVID-19 and SARS are epidemics which have influenced the largest global economic crisis in recent years. This research reveals that both SARS and COVID-19 have led to fluctuations in the prices of gold and the US dollar index; however, there is no direct causal relationship be-tween COVID-19 and the price of bitcoin. The USD index saw a significant increase during the SARS outbreak, while gold prices surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The notion that cryptocurrency will surpass the value of gold or traditional currencies seems improbable, given the lack of evidence linking bitcoin prices to COVID-19. Gold is expected to maintain its value in the long term, offering lower risk compared to other currencies.
Dating back thousands of years, agriculture has been an essential practice in the advancement of human civilization. Over time, humans realized that not everyone in the community needed to be involved in food production, leading to the emergence of specialized labour, tools, and techniques that could generate surplus food for the community. Throughout history, agriculture has continuously evolved and played a crucial role in sustaining humanity.As the population grew, the evolution of agriculture became driven by the need to feed the expanding population while maintaining food quality and traceability, preventing adulteration of products, and maximizing yield. The recent emergence of blockchain technology has brought about significant advancements that prove beneficial for the agricultural sector. The implementation of blockchain has led to benefits and revolutionary changes in agriculture, facilitating modernization and optimization in various aspects of agriculture.This research survey also deals on how blockchain technology has positively influenced different market aspects within agriculture. From the production stage to distribution and beyond, blockchain has made its impact felt, enhancing various aspects of the agricultural. Despite its promising benefits, the adoption of blockchain in agriculture is not without challenges. This study also explores these challenges and discusses the potential future developments in the field.Overall, the survey highlights how blockchain technology has become a driving force in revolutionizing agriculture, offering improved traceability, transparency, and efficiency across the entire agricultural supply chain.Research objectives1.Blockchain-Based Applications for Addressing Agricultural Challenges: Exploring Potential Solutions2.Blockchain for Supply Chain Management in Agriculture: A Promising Approach for Ensuring Food Safety and Security3.Revolutionizing Agricultural Transactions: The Power of Blockchain-Enabled Smart Contracts4.Enhancing Agriculture with Blockchain in AI, IoT, and Big Data: A Powerful Integration5.Benefits and Challenges of Blockchain Technology in Agriculture: A Comprehensive Analysis
Abstract COVID-19 has significantly influenced global financial markets, including Bitcoin. Recent studies have focused on investigating the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak and accounting for market changes, which were mostly due to the pandemic. This research not only analyzes the contagion effects of COVID-19 but also considers aftermath events beyond the first pandemic wave to examine spillovers of Bitcoin. The study employs Diebold and Yilmaz’s method to explore the static and dynamic spillovers of the selected variables and identifies several major global events, including crypto-specific affairs, macroeconomic policies, and geopolitical conflicts, to explain the new market dynamics of Bitcoin using network analysis. The findings identify a few high-contagion periods related to Bitcoin. The paper also found that Bitcoin is more likely to produce extreme returns and is more connected to other markets. Contagion effects “from” and “to” other markets are asymmetrical in terms of arrival time and market response. Bitcoin is more likely to be affected by other markets in extreme situations and receives spillovers from them sooner than it transmits spillovers to others. In the context of various global events, impacts arising from developed countries are stronger. China still has some impact on cryptocurrency markets, but they are waning. Bitcoin is thus not a safe haven from the shocks of global events, but can sometimes work as a hedge or diversifier. The results offer alternative explanations for Bitcoin’s different market dynamics and enrich our understanding of Bitcoin’s safe haven, hedge, and diversifier properties within a diversified portfolio.
Imran Yousaf, Shoaib Ali, mohamed marei, Mariya Gubareva
This study investigates the static and dynamic interdependence of the Islamic cryptocurrency and metal markets using the TVP-VAR methodology. The empirical findings suggest that Islamic cryptocurrencies are the recipients of both return and volatility spillovers, while most metals act as transmitters of these spillovers. The dynamic spillovers are intensified in the COVID-19 period compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. We find that the return connectedness is short-lived lived whereas the volatility connectedness is a long-term phenomenon. Finally, we also compute the optimal weights, hedge ratios, and hedging effectiveness during COVID-19. The results suggest that investors should add Islamic cryptocurrencies to metals portfolios in order to get maximum risk-adjusted returns during the pandemic crisis. Our findings are helpful for portfolio managers and investors in making decisions regarding diversification, portfolio allocation, forecasting, and hedging.
Cristian Camilo Ordoñez, Gustavo Ramírez Gonzales, Juan Carlos Corrales
In its fundamental role for food security in South America, sustainable agriculture faces the challenge of addressing the current and future needs of the region while ensuring profitability, environmental health, and social and economic equity. Currently, as support for sustainable agriculture, a significant transformation is observed in the agricultural landscape due to the development of advanced information systems. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Blockchain have emerged as crucial tools to document and support sustainable agricultural processes. Blockchain technology has proven to be highly beneficial for sustainable agriculture, effectively addressing a significant issue in the agricultural supply chain by providing solutions for transparent and traceable processes. This technology solves the problem by establishing a permanent and open record of all transactions and activities in the supply chain, allowing consumers and stakeholders to track the origin and quality of agricultural products, thereby fostering trust and fair trade. For this reason, this article conducted a review of the current state of blockchain technology in sustainable agriculture, aimed at researchers and farmers in South America. The advantages and disadvantages of blockchain technology were identified, focusing on technologies developed and tested during the design and pilot phases. The PRISMA methodology was used in this review, and documents were searched in Scopus and Web of Science databases. Six hundred and fifty-six articles were identified and selected (2018–2023 period), but only 104 met the eligibility and inclusion criteria. The findings indicate a 30% increase in the adoption of decentralized applications (DAPs) powered by blockchain in the agribusiness sector compared to the previous year. After a thorough analysis, it has been determined that smart contracts, non-fungible tokens for digital assets, and blockchain oracles will provide promising solutions for sustainable agricultural technology in the future.
Blockchain technology has emerged as a revolutionary force with the potential to address pressing social challenges and transform traditional paradigms in humanitarian aid and social initiatives. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the diverse applications of blockchain in fostering social good, particularly in the realms of humanitarian aid and social initiatives. The decentralized and transparent nature of blockchain offers a paradigm shift in the way charitable organizations operate and deliver aid. Smart contracts on blockchain enable transparent and tamper-resistant transactions, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and reach intended beneficiaries. The elimination of intermediaries reduces the risk of corruption and ensures a more direct and accountable flow of funds. In the context of humanitarian aid, blockchain facilitates the creation of decentralized identity systems, ensuring secure and verifiable identities for displaced populations. This aids in the efficient delivery of aid, as well as financial inclusion for those without access to traditional banking services. Moreover, blockchain enhances supply chain transparency, enabling the tracking of donations from inception to distribution, reducing fraud and ensuring the authenticity of goods. Social initiatives, too, benefit from blockchain's transformative capabilities. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) enable communities to collectively make decisions and manage resources. This fosters a sense of ownership and empowerment among participants, promoting sustainable social development. Additionally, blockchain-based token economies incentivize positive behaviors, encouraging individuals to contribute to social causes in meaningful ways. Despite these promising applications, challenges such as scalability, regulatory uncertainties, and technological literacy remain. This paper calls for continued research and collaboration to unlock the full potential of blockchain for social good, emphasizing the need for innovative solutions that can address the unique challenges faced by humanitarian and social initiatives.
This comprehensive article delves into the intricate interrelations among cryptocurrency evolution, sustainability marketing, regulatory frameworks, and market quality within the financial domain. Drawing upon a diverse array of scholarly references, it explores the historical inception, technological advancements, and potential trajectories of cryptocurrency markets. It also scrutinizes the emergence of sustainable finance, emphasizing the incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into financial paradigms. Furthermore, it assesses the influence of regulations on sustainability marketing strategies and investigates how market quality impacts the efficacy of sustainability endeavors. Through the analysis of case studies and collaborative endeavors, the article furnishes practical insights into embedding sustainable practices and cultivating a responsible financial environment. By amalgamating theoretical constructs with realworld instances, it offers guidance to stakeholders navigating the complexities and opportunities within sustainable finance and cryptocurrency trading.
This paper is written to provide an insight on how blockchain technology has a very high potential in providing an alternative way to attractively organize the modern finance.Blockchain today is not merely bitcoin or other crypto currencies.It impacts various other sectors such as supply chain management, voting mechanisms, original content creation, secure sharing of data, etc.But this paper relates to today's world of fluted, along with blockchain.It rightly points out the flaws associated with the current financial world and how blockchain provides a solution to it.This paper also demonstrates the various applications of blockchain in finance such as De-Fi (Decentralized Finance), Dapps (Decentralized Apps), Smart contracts, cross border payments, NFTs, DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations).It also shows how blockchain can bring out a more efficient and secure finance industry.It also contains information on crypto currencies, their various usages, and their underlying fundamental principles.The paper also describes some insights into blockchain security issues and remedies.
Rural fishing communities face numerous challenges related to livelihood security, as they are engaged in a risky and labour-intensive occupation. They often receive only a small portion of the profits, due to the influence of self-serving local intermediaries, lack of transparency in the business processes, trust issues, and power differentials among stakeholders. Although still in its infancy, blockchain technology has been adopted in various urban settings to mitigate similar challenges and to build trust through its security attributes, data ledger transparency, and smart contract automation. Yet, few have explored the efficacy of blockchain technology in addressing the unique challenges faced by rural fishermen in marketing their catch and connecting them to a broader range of customers for improved livelihood resilience. This study aims to examine how the livelihood resilience of fishermen can be increased through the potential of a blockchain, in a fishing community in the coastal village of Alappad in Kerala, India. Thematic analysis of data acquired from 43 semi-structured qualitative interviews and participatory rural appraisal tools revealed five categories of challenges: business cost and profitability, government regulations, low education and digital illiteracy, socio-cultural limitations, and over-dependence on middlemen as inhibitors to fishermen's livelihoods. The study proposes a blockchain-based e-commerce framework to mitigate selected challenges that emerged due to a lack of trust and transparency in the local fish market. It contributes to rural development by exploring an innovative, solution aligned with five UN Sustainable Development Goals, in contrast to the Business-as-usual approach in offering technological solutions.
In this paper, we review the benefits and challenges of cryptocurrencies, the decentralized digital money and assets, on the financial system.Afterward, we apply the simple and linear "Transfer Function (Autoregressive distribution Lag Model, ARDL) to examine the effects of selected cryptocurrencies on financial system with specific focus on the foreign exchange market, capital market and the money market in Nigeria.We propose a linear ARDL method to demonstrate how the volatilities in the prices and transaction volumes of Bitcoin.The result shows that the treasury bill transaction amount is explained by its own past, as well as other considered variables.A 1% increase in bitcoin price would result in 0.004% decrease in the volume of transaction of the treasury bill.Also, a 1% increase in bitcoin traded transaction will result in a 0.096% decrease in the money market treasury bill.Regarding the treasury bill rates, the result identified that the treasury bill rate is also explain by own past and other considered variables.A 1% t increase in bitcoin price would result in 0.059% decrease in the treasury bill rates.Lastly, bitcoin volume would result in significant decrease in treasury bills rates in line with expectation.A 1% increase in bitcoin traded transaction will result in a 0.039% decrease in treasury bill rates.Thus, the study contributes to the existing literature by providing how the financial transactions in the cryptocurrency market are drives price discovering in the financial markets in Nigeria.The findings open room for future research since the study is limited to only few financial markets in Nigeria.
This study examines Bitcoin price movements from an infectious disease perspective. The author compares the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with the Bitcoin price explosion and adopts the SIR epidemiological model. The SIR model operates by categorizing the population of individuals into susceptible (S), infected (I), and removed (R). In the case of Bitcoin, open wallets represent the susceptible population, and the infection starts with a single individual. After conducting four estimation trials, the model that uses the recovery rate derived from the Bitcoin price downtrend and the infection rate from the upward trend has the highest accuracy. The estimation deviates from the Bitcoin price explosions by only three days. Previous studies commonly use faster-than-exponential growth or stationarity tests to identify bubble formations. This paper introduces a novel approach that employs epidemiological models to analyze Bitcoin's explosive price behavior.
This study scrutinizes the COVID-19 measures and their effect on leading cryptocurrency returns. Our direct measures of COVID-19 show that cryptocurrency returns are significantly influenced by COVID-19 and are most visible throughout pre-vaccination phase. The intraday price movement becomes wider during vaccination period compared to cryptocurrency returns. The findings demonstrate that even negative news of COVID-19 did not deter investors from being optimistic in the pre-vaccination period. Further, COVID-19 impacts on the cryptocurrency market diverge depending on the size of currency once vaccination begins. It reflects a different underlying dynamic process in cryptocurrency trading.
This article explores the transformative potential of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency market. Highlighting the growing attention towards blockchain and cryptocurrencies, emphasizing their decentralized, secure, and transparent nature. However, challenges, including the need to address scalability issues and ensure responsible usage, prompt a focus on AI integration as a viable solution. The study delves into the benefits of AI in the cryptocurrency market, showcasing its ability to predict trends, identify risks, and optimize trading strategies. The research emphasizes the relevance of investigating the integration of AI into blockchain and its specific applications, particularly in detecting and preventing fraud. The article recognizes the potential for increased efficiency, reduced costs, and improved security in transactions through this integration. Acknowledging potential challenges such as AI decision-making implications and technical hurdles, the article advocates for ongoing research and development. It highlights the need for responsible AI adoption to maximize benefits while addressing concerns like algorithmic biases and potential market manipulation. Also explores AI's role in risk management, fraud detection, and investment management within the financial sector. It underscores the importance of ethical considerations, transparency, and accountability to ensure AI's integration aligns with the best interests of all stakeholders. As the article concludes, it emphasizes the dynamic and transformative potential of the integration of AI into blockchain and the cryptocurrency market. It advocates for a collaborative approach among stakeholders, policymakers, and developers to ensure responsible usage, compliance with regulations, and ongoing innovation. The synthesis of AI and blockchain technologies has the potential to revolutionize industries, enhance security, and contribute to a more efficient, transparent, and innovative future.
Fatma Ben Hamadou, Taicir Mezghani, Mouna Boujelbène Abbes
Understanding the interplay between investor sentiment and cryptocurrency returns has become a critical area of research. Indeed, this study aims to uncover the role of Google investor sentiment on cryptocurrency returns (including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Tether), especially during the 2017-18 bubble (January 01, 2017, to December 31, 2018) and the COVID-19 pandemic (January 01, 2020, to March 15, 2022). To achieve this, we use two techniques: quantile causality and wavelet coherence. First, the quantile causality test unveils that investors’ optimistic sentiments have notably higher cryptocurrency returns, whereas pessimistic sentiment has significantly opposite effects. Moreover, the wavelet coherence analysis shows that co-movement between investor sentiment and Tether cannot be considered significant. This result supports the role of Tether as a stablecoin in portfolio diversification strategies. In fact, the findings will help investors improve the accuracy of cryptocurrency return forecasts in times of stressful events and pave the way for enhanced decision-making utility.
Inès Abdelkafi, Youssra Ben Romdhane, Sahar Loukil
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the notion that cryptocurrencies are uncorrelated with traditional asset markets. This study uses VAR-OLS techniques to investigate the time-varying correlation between Bitcoin and three major European stock market indices from January 4, 2016, to February 26, 2021. Our results show that cryptocurrencies and stock markets are dependent during crisis periods, but not during non-crisis periods. This confirms the time-varying correlation between cryptocurrencies and stock markets, which depends on the extent and persistence of responses to own and cross shocks. To improve the robustness of our results, we also test the impact of government measures on Bitcoin and stock market indices and find that they are both affected by these measures. Our study adds to the literature by examining the impacts of pandemics on the correlations between Bitcoin returns and the stock market, oil, and gold index returns, which have so far been unaddressed.
This paper explores the connectedness between the cryptocurrency environmental attention index and four major green financial assets using time-varying parameter vector autoregression model from January 2014 to December 2021. Findings reveal that connectedness follows a heterogeneous trajectory over time. Results show evidence of higher volatility transmission during the COVID-19 period relative to the entire sample period. The high volatility transmission is a source of concern to policymakers, green stakeholders, and investors, due to limited diversification options.