Excess Volatility in Bitcoin: Extreme Value Volatility Estimation

Abstract

This article investigates the excess volatility in Bitcoin prices using an unbiased extreme value volatility estimator. We capture the time-varying nature of the excess volatility using bootstrap, multi-horizon, sub-sampling and rolling-window approaches. We observe that Bitcoin price changes are almost efficient. Although Bitcoin prices exhibit high volatility and show signs of excess volatility for a few periods, it is decreasing over time. After controlling for the outliers, we also notice that the Bitcoin market shows signs of increasing maturity. Overall, Bitcoin prices show a sign of increasing efficiency with decreasing volatility. Our findings have implications for investors making investment decisions and for regulators making policy choices.