Investing Research Articles

Should investors consider adding crypto-assets to portfolios of traditional assets? In their April 2018 paper entitled “Cryptocurrencies as an Asset Class?”, Sinan Krueckeberg and Peter Scholz investigate whether cryptocurrencies (crypto-assets) qualify as a distinct asset class, attractively diversifying portfolios of traditional asset classes. They distinguish between cryptographic coins (with their own blockchains) and tokens (using third party blockchains). They… Keep Reading

How do crypto-asset prices interact with conventional market risks, monetary policy and crypto-specific factors? In their July 2024 paper entitled “What Drives Crypto Asset Prices?”, Austin Adams, Markus Ibert and Gordon Liao investigate factors influencing crypto-asset returns using a sign-restricted, structural vector auto-regressive model. Specifically, they decompose daily Bitcoin returns into components reflecting: Monetary policy… Keep Reading

What information is key to investing in crypto-assets? In their May 2022 paper entitled “An Investor’s Guide to Crypto”, Campbell Harvey, Tarek Abou Zeid, Teun Draaisma, Martin Luk, Henry Neville, Andre Rzym and Otto Van Hemert offer insights for investors seeking exposure to crypto-assets. They discuss a variety of tokens, highlighting their functionality and investment… Keep Reading

Do crypto-asset trading volumes usefully predict returns? In the August 2018 draft of their paper entitled “Trading Volume in Cryptocurrency Markets”, Daniele Bianchi and Alexander Dickerson investigate the power of crypto-asset trading volumes to predict future returns. They calculate volumes and returns based on either 12-hour or 24-hour intervals. They process these inputs as follows: To detect… Keep Reading

What are the essential investment features of crypto-assets? In their October 2025 paper entitled “Cryptocurrency as an Investable Asset Class: Coming of Age”, Nicola Borri, Yukun Liu, Aleh Tsyvinski and Xi Wu synthesize the rapidly growing body of research on crypto-assets into 10 statements summarizing how they behave in aggregate as an asset class, how… Keep Reading

How do the major crypto-assets (Bitcoin, Ripple, and Ethereum) stack up against conventional asset classes? In their August 2018 paper entitled “Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrency”, Yukun Liu and Aleh Tsyvinski apply standard tools of asset pricing to measure crypto-asset exposures to: 160 equity factors. Macroeconomic factors (non-durable consumption growth, durable consumption growth, industrial production growth, and… Keep Reading

What is the body of academic research on crypto-assets? In their March 2018 paper entitled “Cryptocurrencies as a Financial Asset: A Systematic Analysis”, Shaen Corbet, Brian Lucey, Andrew Urquhart and Larisa Yarovaya review available research on cryptocurrencies as financial assets. They define crypto-assets as peer-to-peer electronic transaction systems which allow payment by one party directly to another without… Keep Reading

Is trend-following generally an attractive strategy for crypto-assets? In their April 2025 paper entitled “Catching Crypto Trends; A Tactical Approach for Bitcoin and Altcoins”, Carlo Zarattini, Alberto Pagani and Andrea Barbon test a long-only trend-following strategy on Bitcoin. They then extend the strategy to all cryptocurrencies listed for at least one year since 2015 with… Keep Reading

Can Bitcoin, or any other crypto-asset, become a durable currency, or is its value a pure bubble? In his October 2020 paper entitled “Fiat Money, Cryptocurrencies, and the Pure Theory of Money Edward Elgar Handbook on Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies”, David Glasner applies basic concepts and doctrines of the economic theory of money to address the… Keep Reading

Does over $1 trillion in crypto-assets (having no fundamental value and paying no interest, but trading freely) now held by Americans represent new wealth? In his brief June 2021 paper entitled “Bubble Wealth”, Bradford Cornell addresses the apparent paradox between the view of economic theory (no new wealth) and the fact that those holding crypto-assets… Keep Reading