Herding in the crypto market: a diagnosis of heavy distribution tails

With the unprecedented growth of digitalization across the globe, a new asset class, that is cryptocurrency, has emerged to attract investors of all stripe. The novelty of this newly emerged asset class has led researchers to gauge anomalous trade patterns and behavioural fallacies in the crypto market. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the herd behaviour in a newly evolved cryptocurrency market during normal, skewed, Bitcoin bubble and COVID-19 phases. It, then, investigates the significance of Bitcoin in driving herding bias in the market. Finally, the study gauges herding contagion between the crypto market and stock markets.

The study employs daily closing prices of cryptocurrencies and relevant stocks of S&P 500 (USA), S&P BSE Sensex (Index) and MERVAL (Argentina) indices for a period spanning from June 2015 to May 2020. Quantile regression specifications of Chang et al.’s (2000) absolute deviation method have been used to locate herding bias. Dummy regression models have also been deployed to examine herd activity during skewed, crises and COVID-19 phases.

The descriptive statistics reveal that the relevant distributions are leptokurtic, justifying the selection of quantile regression to diagnose tails for herding bias. The empirical results provide robust evidence of crypto herd activity during normal, bullish and high volatility periods. Next, the authors find that the assumptions of traditional financial doctrines hold during the Bitcoin bubble. Further, the study reveals that the recent outbreak of COVID-19 subjects the crypto market to herding activity at quantile (t) = 0.60. Finally, no contagion is observed between cryptocurrency and stock market herding.

Drawing on the empirical findings, it is believed that in this age of digitalization and technological escalation, this new asset class can offer diversification benefits to the investors. Also, the crypto market seems quite immune to behavioural idiosyncrasies during turbulence. This may relieve regulators of the possible instability this market may pose to the entire financial system.

The present study appears to be the first attempt to diagnose leptokurtic tails of relevant distribution for crypto herding in the wake of two remarkable events: the crypto asset bubble (2016–2017) and the outbreak of coronavirus (early 2020).