Market efficiency of the cryptocurrencies: Some new evidence based on price–volume relationship

Abstract

AbstractCryptocurrencies have emerged as an important investment avenue in the past few years. Investors are increasingly interested in these currencies amid surging financial returns. In this context, understanding market efficiency of cryptocurrency has become very crucial for investors and academicians. The price–volume framework is a popular approach in financial economics to understand the market efficiency of stocks in the stock markets. Therefore, this article examines the market efficiency of cryptocurrencies through price–volume framework to understand whether crypto market is predictable. Towards this objective, data on both return and trading volume (TV) of the top eight cryptocurrencies are used for the period 8 August 2015–20 October 2022. As an empirical method, both linear and non‐linear causality models are used to validate the hypothesis. Our results confirm that TV cannot predict the cryptocurrencies' return, thereby validating the market efficiency hypothesis. Furthermore, we divide the sample according to the structural break period. The result from the post‐break period analysis also confirms the presence of market efficiency in the recent period for all currencies, barring XRP, XMR and DASH.