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.
Anupama Panghal, Sharmistha Pan, Priyanka Vern, Rahul S Mor · 5 authors
Summary This paper explores the potential of blockchain technology (BCT) in promoting sustainable food production and consumption (SFPC) from a consumer perspective. India, a significant global food producer, faces challenges related to affordability and food logistics due to transport and labour constraints. Food safety concerns, that is, foodborne illnesses and quality issues, alongside unexpected events like COVID‐19 and geopolitical conflicts, threaten SFPC. In recent times, consumer focus has shifted a lot towards food safety and security. The study adopted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify the factors strengthening consumer trust through BCT. The EFA helped classify the items into five factors, that is, reliability, sustainability, impact on health, trust and switching intentions. The results reveal that these factors are the most significant reasons consumers are willing to accept a blockchain‐enabled food system over a traditional system. The study findings will benefit organisations willing to introduce blockchain within their operations to improve the consumer base. It will also prove to be helpful for researchers and academicians to understand consumer perspectives towards BCT for SFPC.
Purpose: The article aims to investigate the relationship between the returns of the NASDAQ Composite stock index and the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Theoretical framework: According to the literature, it is obvious that cryptocurrencies are very volatile, especially during the economic instability period. There is a belief that when uncertainty is in the economy, investors prefer alternative investment opportunities. There is a need to prove that. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study employs two different models, the ARMAX and the GARCH, to analyze the data from March 2018 to March 2023. The results of the analysis suggest a significant relationship between the returns of the NASDAQ Composite and Bitcoin. These results have important implications for investors and policymakers. Findings: The findings suggest that investors need to be aware of the potential risks and benefits associated with investing in both assets, particularly in times of economic uncertainty. Policymakers may also need to consider the impact of traditional stock markets and the overall economy on cryptocurrencies. Research, Practical & Social implications: The research suggests that investors should be careful with cryptocurrencies. Originality/Value: The results are based on the time series analysis that makes the research original. Because there are few examples of time series and volatility analysis of cryptocurrencies.
Research in recent years has shown that Bitcoin is a virtual asset that is used as a medium of exchange and investment tool other than shares and bonds, the development of the digital era has opened up opportunities for Bitcoin to be chosen as part of an investor’s portfolio. The focus of this study is to examine the impact of nine key determinants on Bitcoin price. The data used in the study are daily data starting from January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2022. The main data source is taken from Investing.com, and the estimation method applied is the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The main finding shows that Bitcoin Volume impacts Bitcoin Price negatively, which is in line with the demand theory. Another finding is related to the substitute effect of Ethereum Volume, Litecoin Volume, and Gold Volume, each of which influences Bitcoin Price positively, suggesting that these three commodities are substitutes to Bitcoin. In contrast, whereas Oil Volume has an insignificant effect on Bitcoin price in the short term, it has a negative significant impact in the long term. In addition, LQ45 stock index Volume influences Bitcoin Price positively in the short term, suggesting that LQ45 stock index and Bitcoin substitute for each other. Moreover, Google Trends impacts Bitcoin price positively in the long term. In terms of the income effect, either the Indonesian GDP or US GDP has a strong positive effect on Bitcoin price in both the short and long term.
Purpose This study analyzes the static and dynamic risk spillover between US/Chinese stock markets, cryptocurrencies and gold using daily data from August 24, 2018, to January 29, 2021. This study provides practical policy implications for investors and portfolio managers. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) spillover indices based on the forecast error variance decomposition from vector autoregression framework. This approach allows the authors to examine both return and volatility spillover before and after the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. First, the authors used a static analysis to calculate the return and volatility spillover indices. Second, the authors make a dynamic analysis based on the 30-day moving window spillover index estimation. Findings Generally, results show evidence of significant spillovers between markets, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, cryptocurrencies and gold markets are net receivers of risk. This study provides also practical policy implications for investors and portfolio managers. The reached findings suggest that the mix of Bitcoin (or Ethereum), gold and equities could offer diversification opportunities for US and Chinese investors. Gold, Bitcoin and Ethereum can be considered as safe havens or as hedging instruments during the COVID-19 crisis. In contrast, Stablecoins (Tether and TrueUSD) do not offer hedging opportunities for US and Chinese investors. Originality/value The paper's empirical contribution lies in examining both return and volatility spillover between the US and Chinese stock market indices, gold and cryptocurrencies before and after the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. This contribution goes a long way in helping investors to identify optimal diversification and hedging strategies during a crisis.
Kamer-Ainur Aivaz, Ionela Munteanu, Flavius Valentin Jakubowicz
Based on traditional market theory, this study aims to investigate whether conventional market investment slopes affect the unconventional Bitcoin market, considering both normal conditions and crises. This study examines three main characteristics of the economy-intensive blockchain system, namely reliability, investment slopes, financial and accounting aspects that ultimately determine the confidence in the choice to invest in cryptocurrency. The analysis focuses on the study of the Bitcoin (BTC) investment slopes during January 2014–April 2023, considering the specifics of blockchain technology and the inferences of ethics, reliability and real-world data on investment Tassets in the context of conventional regulated markets. Using an econometric model that incorporates reliability analysis techniques, factorial comparisons and multinomial regression using economic crisis periods as a dummy variable, this study reveals important findings for practical and academic purposes. The results of this study show that the investment slopes of Bitcoin (BTC) are mostly predictable for downward trends, when statistically significant correlations with the investment slopes of conventional stock markets are observable. The moderate or high increase in performance slopes pose several challenges for predictive analysis, as they are influenced by other factors than conventional regulated market performance inferences. The results of this study are of intense interest to researchers and investors alike, as they demonstrate that investment slopes analysis sheds light on the intricacies of investment decisions, allowing a comprehensive assessment of both conventional markets and Bitcoin transactions.
Abstract Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial and commodity markets have exhibited significant volatility and displayed fat tail properties, deviating from the normal probability curve. The recent Russia-Ukraine war has further disrupted these markets, attracting considerable attention from both researchers and practitioners due to the occurrence of consecutive black swan events within a short timeframe. In this study, we utilized the Quantile-VAR technique to examine the interconnectedness and spillover effects between African equity markets and international financial/commodity assets. Daily data spanning from January 3, 2020, to September 6, 2022, was analyzed to capture tail risks. Our main findings can be summarized as follows. Firstly, the level of connectedness in returns is more pronounced in the lower and upper tails compared to the median. Secondly, during times of crisis, African equity markets primarily serve as recipients of systemic shocks. Lastly, assets such as Silver, Gold, and Natural Gas exhibit greater resilience to systemic shocks, validating their suitability as hedging instruments for African equities, in contrast to cryptocurrencies and international exchange rates. These findings carry significant implications for policymakers and investors in Africa equities.
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the determinants of global interest in central bank digital currency (CBDC). It assessed whether global interest in sustainable development and cryptocurrency are determinants of global interest in CBDC. Design/methodology/approach Google Trends data were analyzed using two-stage least square regression estimation. Findings There is a significant positive relationship between global interest in sustainable development and global interest in CBDC. There is a significant positive relationship between global interest in cryptocurrency and global interest in the Nigeria eNaira CBDC. There is a significant negative relationship between global interest in CBDC and global interest in the eNaira CBDC. There is a significant positive relationship between global interest in CBDC and global interest in the China eCNY. There is a significant negative relationship between global interest in cryptocurrency and global interest in the Sand Dollar and DCash. Originality/value The literature has not empirically examined whether global interest in sustainable development and cryptocurrency are factors motivating global interest in CBDC. This study fills a gap in the literature by investigating whether global interest in sustainable development and cryptocurrency are factors motivating global interest in CBDC.
Misbah Sadiq, Ahmet Faruk Aysan, Umar Nawaz Kayani
This study examines how blockchain and digital currency have affected the supply of credit and financial stability. It pays particular attention to industry-based analyses and options presented by cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and digital currencies for the credit supply and financial stability. A positivistic or quantitative research design is employed. The method of data collection is a survey-based questionnaire, as well as the time interval data method, from December 2021 to December 2022. The study sample comprises of five industrial zones of Punjab. The respondents are businessmen, managers, and employees (N = 449). The study finds that the use of various digital currencies quickly transforms business. The study shows that most industries do not require central banks and, instead, concentrate on modern digital currency and blockchain systems for monetary transfers. The private and public models of physical money will likely fail in the future. Rather, central banks should adopt digital currency and blockchain with an online technological payment strategy in order to enhance domestic financial stability and payment systems.
Mohamed Fakhfekh, Yasmine Snene Manzli, Azza Béjaoui, Ahmed Jeribi
This article attempts to assess the hedging, diversification and safe haven characteristics of gold, Bitcoin and Tether for G7 investors during the political and health crises. For this end, we use the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity-A-Dynamic Conditional Correlation model. The findings prove that gold can be considered as a strong safe haven asset for the G7 investors during the Russia–Ukraine crisis. In contrast, cryptocurrencies fail to retain their safe haven features for Japanese investors during the COVID-19 pandemic. But, they act as diversifier assets for the rest of the G7 stock markets. The computed optimal hedge and hedging effectiveness reveal that Bitcoin displays the best hedging instrument for the United States, British, Japanese and Canadian investors during the Russia–Ukraine crisis whereas gold is considered as the best instrument for German, French and Italian investors.
Michael Demmler, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro-Facultad de Contaduría y Administración
This study explores the financial performance of cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic.In particular, the research objective is to compare the market price movements of the leading cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB and XRP before and during the COVID-19 pandemic based on a longitudinal, exploratory, and quantitative research design which is centered on the analysis of the statistical moments of logarithmic return distributions, tests for structural changes combined with stationarity tests and portfolio optimization strategies.Results of the analysis show a clear change of the medium-to long-term return behavior of the analyzed cryptocurrencies during the pandemic, although not immediately after the pandemic announcement of the WHO in March 2020.Especially Bitcoin, BNB and Ethereum show comparable and even more favorable return characteristics in most samples compared to traditional investment alternatives.Furthermore, the diversification potential of cryptocurrency portfolios appears to be quite limited.
The main goal of this paper is to determine how vaccination and the spread of COVID-19 have influenced investor interest in cryptocurrency. The paper quantifies the reproduction number of COVID-19 worldwide and in specific countries. It evaluates cryptocurrency volatility using various time scale frequencies by employing the Wavelet approach. Additionally, this research examines how investor interest in these sectors was impacted by immunizations and pandemic transmission. Our research demonstrates that during the COVID-19 epidemic, cryptocurrency volatility is greater across extended trade horizons and decreases following the introduction of immunizations. Furthermore, vaccination levels and the spread of COVID-19 significantly affect investor attention in the top three cryptocurrency markets. This work has several implications, such as highlighting the effect of COVID-19's spread in increasing the volatility of cryptocurrency markets and the role of vaccinations in reducing risks and increasing investor attention. The results of this study aid in forecasting bitcoin market activity and price movements, creating trading opportunities in the bitcoin market. The empirical findings will provide valuable insights for policymakers and investors, enabling them to develop better investment strategies. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to employ the R-number to calculate the effect of the COVID-19 vaccine and dissemination on cryptocurrency markets.
This study investigates the co-movement patterns of Asia technology stock indices and cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis examines Bitcoin and Ethereum, China’s Tech index (XA90), and India’s Tech index (NSEIT) from 2017 to 2021, representing both before and during COVID-19. To visually explore the co-movement between these variables, a bi-wavelet method is employed. This approach allows for an examination of how these variables move together over time coherently. There were noticeable changes in the co-movement patterns between technology stock indices and cryptocurrencies during COVID-19 compared to before the pandemic. The duration of co-movements decreased significantly after the emergence of COVID-19. The previous financial crisis had a longer time horizon for joint movement, lasting 256 days. However, during the pre-COVID-19 period, XA90 exhibited a strong co-movement with Bitcoin over this extended period but weakened afterward when COVID-19 emerged. Conversely, NSEIT showed a significant co-movement with both Ethereum and Bitcoin in the initial stages of the pandemic. Before that period, NSEIT had muted price movements along with BTC. These changes in price co-movements suggest shifts in herding behavior due to the pandemic. Notably, cryptocurrency markets have demonstrated faster recovery compared to technology stock markets.
The pandemic has caused enormous economic costs by affecting banks, governments and financial markets.In this context, the main purpose of this paper is to show that cryptocurrencies have become one of the most traded financial assets in the last decade.The overall objective pursued in the paper was the major effect on the global economy and financial markets that the COVID-19 Pandemic had and which was the first real global shock since the first cryptocurrency was launched in 2009 until now.Natural disasters and pandemics are a source of contagion in global financial markets and an emerging line of research.Financial contagion can be the result of both financial and non-financial events, but in both cases, assessments require defining a timeframe.
Hawre Latif Majeed, Diary Jalal Ali, Twana Latif Mohammed
Managing cryptocurrencies by financial intermediaries offer numerous benefits to global financial markets and the economy. Among all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin stands out with the highest market capitalization and a weak correlation to other assets, making it an attractive option for portfolio diversification and risk management. This research aims to examine the impact of Bitcoin on the NASDAQ gold price (GC), the telecommunications market (IXUT), and insurance company performance (IXIS) through the analysis of secondary data from March 1, 2021, to September 4, 2023. The data were obtained from https://www.investing.com; statistical software E views applied various econometric methods to the data. The results suggest a positive correlation between Bitcoin and the other variables, indicating that Bitcoin can significantly expand investment opportunities and drive economic growth. This study highlights the importance of considering cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, as a viable option for investment diversification and risk management in financial markets.
Edosa Getachew Taera, Budi Setiawan, Adil Saleem, Andi Sri Wahyuni · 7 authors
This study investigates the volatility and external shock persistence within the financial and alternative assets markets during times of crises triggered by Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. Univariate GARCH family models are used to capture the effect of financial turmoil caused by recent crises. Five different class of assets (which includes Islamic, ESG, Conventional, Crypto, FinTech, and commodities) have been chosen to represent a sample of the worldwide traditional financial market and alternative assets. The findings of this study revealed that almost all financial and alternative assets experienced an increase in volatility, except Bitcoin, across all observation periods. Islamic stock and ESG indexes exhibited high volatility before the Covid-19 outbreak. During the pandemic, all assets became more volatile. In addition, Islamic equities and ESG indexes showed relatively lower risk compared to conventional stocks and other alternative assets during the war. Multiple financial assets tend to be highly volatile during crises; however, global investors need to consider the advantages of incorporating Islamic stocks and ESG indexes as part of their investment portfolio innovation strategy, particularly in the presence of geopolitical risk.
This research examines the impact of the coronavirus index on the returns and volatility of ten major cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, we applied a multivariate volatility GARCH model with an integrated dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) approach to daily cryptocurrency values observed data during the January-December, 2020 period. Moreover, we used the Granger causality test to study return-volume correlations. The findings indicate that cryptocurrency volatility declined after the World Health Organization declared on March 11, 2020, that the coronavirus was a pandemic. Unlike most of the relevant previous studies, we found that the COVID-19 crisis did not have a long-term effect on cryptocurrency returns and volatility but only presented a short-term effect. Our results have implications for investors who need to determine an optimal portfolio for a scenario other than the base.
Propelled by the socio-economic disturbances and the COVID-19 pandemic, advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and Web3, which are characteristic of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR), have gained significant ground globally, including the developing countries. As organizations face the array of opportunities and challenges of adopting these technologies, human resource (HR) professionals are tasked with trailblazing the digital transformation of workplaces. Yet, a gap in scientific research regarding the preparedness of HR professionals for this task exists, especially in developing countries like North Macedonia. With this research, the authors aim at addressing this gap and exploring the impact of FIR-related technologies on Macedonian workplaces, employees, their skills, and jobs, as well as, the level of readiness of HR professionals to step up in line with these advanced technologies. The authors build upon a review of the existing literature and use a quantitative online survey distributed to a selected group of HR professionals, operating on the territory of North Macedonia. The findings will contribute to a better understanding of the preparedness of HR professionals to steer organizations in the direction of working in the new era of automation and digital transformation.
<title>Abstract</title> In this paper, we try to examine the relationship between the Bitcoin price, social media metrics and the intensity of Covid-19 pandemic. We also attempt to investigate the behavior of Bitcoin volatility during such pandemic. For this end, we use the error correction model, Co-integration processing tool and vector error correction model to detect potential transmission mechanisms among different variables and the dynamic coupling between them. We also apply the GARCH-type models to better apprehend the behavior of Bitcoin volatility. Our results clearly display the short- and long term evidences of the relationshipbetween the Bitcoin price, severity of the Covid-19 health crisis and social media metrics. Moreover, there is strong evidence related to the information content of social media during turbulent phases. We also report some distinctive and salient features of Bitcoin volatility. The information spillover from pandemic-related news to the Bitcoin prices is well-documented. Using the Covid-19 deaths and confirmed cases can be considered as measure of pandemic severity. As well, the information transmission mechanism is well-documented through social media which seems to have an added value during the stressful periods. Such analysis could have insightful implications for investors in crypto-currency market.
In recent years, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Dogecoin have emerged as important asset classes in general, and diversification and hedging instruments in particular. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has provided the chance to examine and assess cryptocurrencies’ behavior during extremely stressful times. The methodology of this study is based on an estimate using the ARDL model from 22 January 2020 to 12 March 2021, allowing us to analyze the long-term and short-term relationship between cryptocurrencies and COVID-19. Our results demonstrate that there is cointegration between the chosen cryptocurrencies in the market and COVID-19. The results indicate that Bitcoin, ETH, and DOGE prices were affected by COVID-19, which means that the pandemic seriously affected the three cryptocurrency prices.
The main purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the cryptocurrency market affects financial stability and economic growth of India. The study used quarterly data on bitcoin, financial stability, inflation rate, real GDP, economic volatility uncertainty, exchange rate, and market volatility index for the period 2015Q1-2021Q4. The robustness of the findings was confirmed by the fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and canonical cointegration regression (CCR). The study results demonstrated that an increase in cryptocurrency investments will affect the financial stability of India significantly. Each 1% increase in the cryptocurrency would reduce the financial stability by 5% approximately. However, there was a marginal effect of cryptocurrency on economic growth. The results also found that exchange rate volatility and inflationary pressure would also deteriorate the financial stability of the country. Furthermore, the results also identified positive and significant cointegration between economic growth and financial stability. Due to most transactions in the economy being done through the financial system, it is paramount for economic growth. Going forward, aggressive monetary policy tightening, volatility in capital flows and exchange rates, deanchoring of inflation expectations, faltering in the economic recovery, disruptions due to global supply chains and climate change will be the major risks to the financial stability and economic growth of India.