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The psychology of cryptocurrency prices

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  • Aloosh, Arash
  • Ouzan, Samuel

Abstract

This letter analyzes the dynamic of cryptocurrency prices through the lens of behavioral economics. Cryptocurrency market participants seem to behave irrationally. We provide evidence of the presence of significant small price bias for the cryptocurrency market, consistent with the hypothesis that investors react to the news differently according to the price-level. We find that low-priced cryptocurrencies are much more volatile than their high-priced counterparts.

Suggested Citation

  • Aloosh, Arash & Ouzan, Samuel, 2020. "The psychology of cryptocurrency prices," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:33:y:2020:i:c:s1544612318309036
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2019.05.010
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Chhatwani, Malvika & Parija, Arpit Kumar, 2023. "Who invests in cryptocurrency? The role of overconfidence among American investors," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    2. Aloosh, Arash & Ouzan, Samuel & Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain, 2022. "Bubbles across Meme Stocks and Cryptocurrencies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    3. Aiman Hairudin & Azhar Mohamad, 2024. "The isotropy of cryptocurrency volatility," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 3779-3810, July.
    4. Matteo Cristofaro & Pier Luigi Giardino & Sanjay Misra & Quoc Trung Pham & Hai Hiep Phan, 2022. "Behavior or culture? Investigating the use of cryptocurrencies for electronic commerce across the USA and China," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(3), pages 340-368, May.
    5. Ahmet Faruk Aysan & Ali Yavuz Polat & Hasan Tekin & Ahmet Semih Tunali, 2021. "Bitcoin-specific fear sentiment and bitcoin returns in the COVID-19 outbreak," Working Papers hal-03354930, HAL.
    6. Ramit Sawhney & Shivam Agarwal & Vivek Mittal & Paolo Rosso & Vikram Nanda & Sudheer Chava, 2022. "Cryptocurrency Bubble Detection: A New Stock Market Dataset, Financial Task & Hyperbolic Models," Papers 2206.06320, arXiv.org.
    7. Cahill, Daniel & G. Baur, Dirk & (Frank) Liu, Zhangxin & W. Yang, Joey, 2020. "I am a blockchain too: How does the market respond to companies’ interest in blockchain?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Investor psychology; Behavioral biases; Cryptocurrency; Price; Volatility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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