Herding behaviour in Korea’s cryptocurrency market

ABSTRACT

Herding behaviour is an interesting phenomenon that has a serious impact on the market, leading to inefficient asset prices and high volatility in periods of market turmoil. We analysed the existence of herding behaviour in the cryptocurrency market using hourly price data of eight major cryptocurrencies and the cross-sectional standard absolute deviation (CSAD) approach. Our findings showed anti-herding behaviour at shorter time intervals and herding behaviour during longer periods. The trading decisions of cryptocurrency investors mimic the behaviour of other traders over time. We further found that herding behaviour is stronger over longer time intervals in a down market. When a market is declining, it suggests that fear increases and investors are forced to act quickly in response to market movements rather than using their information. Thus, investors need to fix the situation as quickly as possible to avoid making losses, hence they need to make rational choices based on knowledge rather than emotion or fear.

KEYWORDS:

• Herding behaviour
• anti-herding
• cryptocurrency
• CSAD approach

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C58
• D91
• G11
• G14
• G41

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF-2020S1A5B8103268].