Why Is Crypto So Volatile? Factors & Reasons

Unlike the FX market, which has high liquidity because of the millions of traders that take part in it, the crypto assets sector is a low liquidity zone. However, crypto asset trading is highly driven by speculation because of a lack of legacy fundamental analysis data. This spectacle leads to high volatility in prices, making the trade both highly risky and rewarding as well.

Another payment token, DASH, had the best volatility during the 2018 bull run when it surged from $10 to $1,100 over 6 months, a volatility score of 11,000%! This was easily the most volatile crypto of the time and made many investors crazy over its fast rate of return. While its volatility profile has calmed down a lot from its early days, DASH nonetheless still experiences regular spikes in price, just like how it managed to garner a volatility of 400% in 2021.

This assessment might be updated once the liquidity situation for cryptocurrency derivatives improves. In the original CBOE (2019) VIX method, only options with maturity between 23 and 37 days are considered. As options on the S&P 500 trade in biweekly frequency, there are always exactly two expiries considered in the VIX, rendering a simple linear interpolation feasible. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency options do not trade at such granular frequencies.

How Do We Measure Volatility?

With how large these markets are, it’s essentially a drop in the ocean—it wouldn’t draw much attention or affect the value of any asset. If this group decided to do the same thing with Bitcoin, or an altcoin, it would be a different kettle of fish. Due to the difference in scale, it would probably lead to a huge crash in the crypto market.

  • After two months, the token rose to the $9,000 mark, then in early August, Bitcoin shattered the $12,000 resistance level.
  • Although AVAX has retreated with all other cryptos in 2022, it is still up more than 700% from the beginning of 2021, making it one of the most volatile cryptos in the past 2 years.
  • It is no surprise that cryptocurrency is known as the riskiest and most volatile asset class in modern financial markets.

Bear markets bring dreams of wealth crashing down, leaving the wreckage of novice traders in their wake. Liquidity depends on how many traders there are and how much they’re buying and selling. As the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, its overall volatility might eventually start to shrink in the near future.

Volatility measures how dramatically an asset’s price rockets and plummets over time. The wilder the ride, the riskier the investment—but also the greater the chance of scoring huge wins or losses. Cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm, igniting a whirlwind of excitement and curiosity around https://www.xcritical.in/ the globe. When it comes to the adrenaline-pumping, heart-stopping twists and turns of the crypto market, we’re playing in a league of its own. Embrace the rollercoaster or dread the drop, volatility is the lifeblood of this digital gold rush, and mastering it could be your ticket to success.

Since the laws are always changing, what was legal last year or even months ago can now be illegal. Due to the fact that bitcoin is simply a cash currency, it has drawn a significant number of criminals. These hackers have the ability to hack through cryptocurrency markets, drain cryptocurrency accounts and corrupt person machines with cryptocurrency-stealing malware.

Top 5 Cryptocurrencies

Governments were pushed to establish a more open means of trade that they could manage and regulate as markets expanded and demand for a medium of exchange increased. This unique medium of exchange has been widely accepted, but it has its own set of issues. The objective of this study is to examine the nature of cryptocurrencies, risks involved in using it due to its volatile nature, advantages, disadvantages and its functions as money. It will interest you to know that most people love cryptocurrency because of its volatile nature. Users often factor in the existing price of tokens and the underlying network’s problem-solving ability to assess the growth prospect of a cryptocurrency. Low-volatile assets such as gold or government bonds are extremely stable, with prices fluctuating in a steady manner and doesn’t change as frequently.

Why Is Market Volatility Important?

The traditional method of calculating volatility involves measuring variance and the square root of the variance. Implied volatility is a parameter calculated (implied) from the option pricing equation (Black-Scholes). Although it is also called volatility, it is different from the volatility we calculated above (from now we call it the realised volatility). Options are used for speculation (you expect Bitcoin price to drop under 950 USD and want to trade it) or hedging (you are paying your employees in Bitcoin but earn in USD, so want to set the limit of the conversion rate). However, traders hyped the stock on social media, such as Twitter and Reddit.

The 2018 price crash led to many of these unprofitable and impossible projects failing, while legitimate projects and businesses were able to survive and grow during the prolonged crypto bear market. Most observers of cryptocurrency markets will agree that crypto volatility is in a different league altogether. In 2016, the price of bitcoin rose by 125% and in 2017 https://www.xcritical.in/blog/crypto-volatility-important-points-you-should-know/ the price rose again, this time by more than 2,000%. Following the 2017 peak that saw it hit new all-time highs, bitcoin’s price receded once more. In 2021, bitcoin continued to set new all-time highs, more than tripling the peak price bitcoin achieved during the 2017 bull run. What we see in the markets on a daily basis is moderate, or healthy volatility.

Formed by a team of former developers from Ripple, XLM has traded almost in the same trajectory as XRP until Ripple got hit with the SEC lawsuit. As the movement of XRP became more influenced by progress on its lawsuit, XLM began to chart its own destiny. For 2021, XLM’s approximate volatility was an impressive 1,000% and finally let XLM come out of the shadow of XRP. For the record though, XLM has consistently had a higher volatility than XRP due to its penchant for having sudden abrupt wild swings in price.

Even though the hype has fallen from its early days, BCH is still the 30th largest crypto. SHIB was launched in 2020 and initially had a negligible value until several major crypto exchanges listed it, where its volatility figure exceeded that of DOGE. Where DOGE has risen 200% in one day, SHIB has easily risen over 300% in a day. Despite having retreated due to the current bear market, SHIB is still up more than 3,000,000% at its current price. If you want to trade cryptocurrencies it’s to your advantage to learn all that you can about blockchain technology and the crypto industry, including its risks. We explore the volatility of crypto markets compared to that of traditional financial markets.

Some Saudis are considering launching a mining firm, but they are still weighing the pros and cons of such a venture (see Figure 3). The way central authorities interpret cryptocurrency holdings is one of the most important legal concerns for any cryptocurrency investor. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the United States has classified cryptocurrencies as property rather than currency. This means that individual investors are beholden to capital gains tax laws when it comes to reporting their cryptocurrency expenses and profits on their annual tax returns, regardless of where they purchased digital coins. When it comes to disclosing cryptocurrency gains and expenses, digital currency holders should take extra care and follow the advice of tax practitioners.