Title: An extreme bounds analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on cryptocurrencies

Authors: Serge Djoudji Temkeng; Achille Dargaud Fofack

Addresses: Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon ' Faculty of Business and Economics, Rauf Denktas University, Turkey

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to find out if the COVID-19 outbreak in the USA has a robust impact on the prices of cryptocurrencies. Inspired by the literature related to the determinants of cryptocurrency prices and based on data availability, six potential determinants of cryptocurrency prices and five proxies for the COVID-19 outbreak were selected. The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak was tested using two approaches of extreme bounds analysis and the robustness of our findings was further checked with different cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash). Our results show that new deaths from the COVID-19 have a robust positive impact on the price of cryptocurrencies while the impact of new confirmed cases, total cases, and total deaths is not robust. In line with previous studies, it is also found that economic uncertainty, stock, gold, and oil prices are robust determinants of the value of cryptocurrencies.

Keywords: COVID-19; Bitcoin; cryptocurrency; extreme bounds analysis; EBA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBC.2021.118136

International Journal of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies, 2021 Vol.2 No.2, pp.103 - 120

Received: 09 Dec 2020
Accepted: 24 Mar 2021
Published online: 12 Oct 2021 *

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