Internet publishing as a forecasting tool in the crypto market

Abstract

Subject. This article examines the relationship between the sentiment caused by the news on the CoinTelegragh professional forum and the changes in Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies. Objectives. The article aims to assess the impact of the sentiment of various Internet publications on the volatility of cryptocurrencies, as well as the predictive power of Google Trends and the VIX Index for cryptocurrencies. Methods. For the study, we used the cross-quantilogram method and the VADER sentiment analysis model. Results. The article finds that the Google Trends Index in a short period of one to three days can be used to predict the closing prices of Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum, while the VIX Index (Stock Market Uncertainty) has no relationship with the cryptocurrency market. This means that cryptocurrencies can be used as a safe-haven asset when the background market is highly volatile. Conclusions. The crypto market has a complex sentiment component, with its prices and trading activity determined by popularity, emotion, and sentiment. The findings confirm previous studies, which claim that during the period of prevalence of negative news and publications, the crypto market gets narrowed, the trading volume drops off, and the interest of Internet users gets low to a minimum. The euphoria in the market, on the contrary, attracts new unqualified investors, and this is confirmed by the number of views of basic information about cryptocurrencies on Wikipedia.