How the Crypto Industry is Overtaking the Stock Market

Concerns over the financial system’s stability have arisen as a result of the maturation of crypto assets like Bitcoin, which have gone from being an obscure financial asset with very few users to becoming a vital element of the revolution in digital assets. Despite the high level of volatility, the market value of these alternative assets increased to nearly $3 trillion in November, up from $620 billion in 2017. This increase was driven by the surging popularity of these assets among individual and institutional investors alike.

Even after last week’s decline, the aggregate market value had reached over $2 trillion, which still represents a nearly fourfold growth compared to where it was in 2017. According to newly published research from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), increased cryptocurrency adoption has led to a significant increase in the connection of crypto assets to traditional holdings such as stocks. This has the effect of reducing the risk perception diversification benefits of crypto assets and increasing the risk of contagion throughout financial markets.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin (BTC) is an asset class that is subject to extremely high levels of speculation, although the majority of individuals in the Uk are still unfamiliar with it. As a result of this, before making any kind of investment in Bitcoin, you should make sure you have a good understanding of what Bitcoin is, where to buy bitcoin safely and effectively and how it works.

Bitcoin, in its most fundamental form, is a sort of virtual currency that was introduced for the first time in 2009. An unidentified software developer who is known as Satoshi Nakamoto is credited with the invention of the technology. This revolutionary cryptocurrency is based on the principle that it is not controlled or owned by any one individual, organisation, state, or central bank. This is its defining characteristic. On the other hand, it lacks a centralised authority.

Because of this, Bitcoin, in contrast to traditional fiat currencies such as the British pound or the US dollar, cannot be manipulated in any way, nor can it be printed. Instead, the software behind Bitcoin generates a brand new cryptocurrency every ten minutes. The costs associated with this will continue to accrue until the supply of digital money exceeds 25 million units, which is forecast to take place in the year 2140. If you have Bitcoins in your possession, you have the ability to send them to another user.

Additionally, the number of establishments that accept payments in the form of Bitcoin continues to rise. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of people who buy Bitcoin in the UK do so as a form of investment. That is to state, they have the expectation that now the Bitcoin value will rise over the duration of time, and as a result, they plan to sell their coins at a significantly higher price.

Bitcoin And Stocks Are Moving In Sync

Prior to the epidemic, crypto assets including Bitcoin and Ether exhibited a relatively low association with stock market indices. It was believed that they would help broaden risk and provide protection against fluctuations in the value of other asset groups. But all of that changed after the unprecedented responses of the central banks to the crisis in the early 2020s.

The prices of cryptocurrencies and US shares both increased as a result of loosening global financial circumstances and increased investor appetite for risk. For instance, over the year of 2017–19, gains on Bitcoin didn’t move in any specific direction in relation to the S&P 500, which is the standard stock index for the United States.

The coefficient of correlation of their daily movements was only 0.01, but that measure soared to 0.36 for 2020 -21 even as assets flowed more in lockstep, either rising with each other or falling together. This occurred because the assets travelled more in lockstep. The stronger relationship between crypto and stocks is also visible in emerging markets, a number of which have taken a lead in the adoption of crypto-assets. This is because emerging market economies are still in the process of developing their financial markets.

For instance, in 2020–21, the relationship between earnings on the MSCI developing markets index as well as Bitcoin was 0.34, which represents a 17-fold rise from the correlation in the years prior. More robust correlations point to the fact that Bitcoin has already been behaving in a risky manner as an asset. Its connection with stocks is now larger than the correlation between stocks as well as other assets such as investment-grade bonds, major currencies, and gold, which indicates that the risk diversification benefits are not as great as they were once believed to be.

The Ripple Effect of Crypto

The increased link between crypto stocks and traditional stocks enhances the prospect of investor sentiment bleeding over into other asset classes. In point of fact, according to the findings of our study, which investigates the price and volatility spillovers that occur among both crypto as well as global equity markets, the degree to which Bitcoin returns, as well as volatility, are transmitted to equity markets, and inversely, has significantly increased in the period of 2020–21 in comparison to 2017–19.

The volatility of Bitcoin accounts for around one-sixth of the variance in S&P 500 returns and approximately one-tenth of the variance in S&P 500 volatility throughout the pandemic. Because of this, a precipitous drop in Bitcoin’s price can cause investors to become more risk-averse, which in turn can lead to a reduction in investing in stock markets.

The fact that sentiment inside one marketplace is communicated to another in a manner that is not trivial is suggested by the fact that spillovers in the opposite direction from S&P 500 to Bitcoin, are already on average of such a similar magnitude. Stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency that tries to retain its relative value to a particular asset or even a collection of assets. Stablecoins aim to preserve their value in relation to a certain asset.

During the pandemic, there was also an increase in the spillovers from the most dominant virtual currency, Tether, to global stocks. These spillovers are significantly smaller than those caused by Bitcoin, however, and only explain between 4 and 7 % of variance in the returns and volatility of US equity markets. Notably, our research indicates that spillovers among crypto and equity markets have a tendency to increase during periods of financial market volatility, such as the market turmoil that occurred in March 2020, or during periods of sharp swings in the price of Bitcoin, such as those that were observed at the beginning of 2021.