Cryptocurrencies: Herding and the Transfer Currency

Abstract

We contribute to the ongoing debate on the existence of herding behavior in the crypto market and provide statistically significant evidence thereof. This finding is in contrast to existing empirical evidence in this field, which is primarily due to previous studies suffering from a sample bias. By introducing the concept of beta herding to the debate, we provide further robustness for our results. Moreover, we propose the concept of Bitcoin as a ‘transfer currency’ and empirically show that herding measures centered around such a transfer currency provide a more precise representation of dispersion in investors beliefs on the crypto market.

Sebastian Stöckl

Assistant Professor in Financial Economics (tenure-track)

My research interests include Financial and Economic Uncertainty as well as Empirical Asset Pricing.