Modeling the Volatility of Cryptocurrencies: An Empirical Application of Stochastic Volatility Models

Abstract

This paper compares a number of stochastic volatility (SV) models for modeling and predicting the volatility of the four most capitalized cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin). The standard SV model, models with heavy-tails and moving average innovations, models with jumps, leverage effects and volatility in mean were considered. The Bayes factor for model fit was largely in favor of the heavy-tailed SV model. The forecasting performance of this model was also found superior than the other competing models. Overall, the findings of this study suggest using the heavy-tailed stochastic volatility model for modeling and forecasting the volatility of cryptocurrencies.