The Efficiency of Value-at-Risk Models during Extreme Market Stress in Cryptocurrencies

Abstract

In recent years, the cryptocurrency market has been experiencing extreme market stress due to unexpected extreme events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia and Ukraine war, monetary policy uncertainty, and a collapse in the speculative bubble of the cryptocurrencies market. These events cause cryptocurrencies to exhibit higher market risk. As a result, a risk model can lose its accuracy according to the rapid changes in risk levels. Value-at-risk (VaR) is a widely used risk measurement tool that can be applied to various types of assets. In this study, the efficacy of three value-at-risk (VaR) models—namely, Historical Simulation VaR, Delta Normal VaR, and Monte Carlo Simulation VaR—in predicting market stress in the cryptocurrency market was examined. The sample consisted of popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), and Ripple (XRP). Backtesting was performed using Kupiec’s POF test, Kupiec’s TUFF test, Independence test, and Christoffersen’s Interval Forecast test. The results indicate that the Historical Simulation VaR model was the most appropriate model for the cryptocurrency market, as it demonstrated the lowest rejections. Conversely, the Delta Normal VaR and Monte Carlo Simulation VaR models consistently overestimated risk at confidence levels of 95% and 90%, respectively. Despite these results, both models were found to exhibit comparable robustness to the Historical Simulation VaR model.