Bitcoin x mercado de ações: uma análise da variação dos índices das bolsas de valores tradicionais diante da maior alta histórica da criptomoeda

Abstract

Due to the fast development of technology, cryptocurrencies, or digital currencies, have become increasingly prominent because of their promise of decentralization, privacy and high return. The most well known cryptocurrency is Bitcoin which, since 2008, has kept its sovereignty in the digital currency market. Although this new market is gaining ground among investors, traditional stock markets remain as a really common choice for most of them. Diversifying one's investment portfolio is often necessary and some already consider Bitcoin as an alternative. This paper has aimed to identify the existence or not of correlation between the variation of Bitcoin price and the stock indexes of traditional stock exchanges around the time of the cryptocurrency all-time high, which can be a valuable information for the investors’ decision making process. Whereas being classified as basic, descriptive, quantitative and ex post facto, this research has used Spearman’s correlation method to analyze the relationship between the variables. The results show that it’s not possible to identify a correlation pattern between the cryptocurrency and stock markets due to the irregular variation of the coefficients found in different indexes and periods of time and that, despite the absence of pattern, there’s a greater tendency of a negative correlation coefficient in the shorter periods next to the chosen event. Moreover, the study suggests that the cryptocurrency and stock markets are independent, so Bitcoin can be viewed as a way of diversifying one’s investment portfolio.