Affiliation:
1. Department of Studies in Business Administration, Vijayanagara Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Ballari, Karnataka, India
Abstract
Due to recent developments, several countries have given the green light to cryptocurrencies, and big companies now accept them as a payment method. This article aimed to assess the random walk behaviour of the cryptocurrency market by analysing Bitcoin returns. The study observed daily Bitcoin closing prices from January 2016 to December 2023. We employed rigorous statistical tests, including the run test, generalised spectral test, automatic portmanteau test and wild bootstrap automatic variance ratio test. Furthermore, the rolling window technique was used to discern whether market efficiency was time-varying or static, involving dividing the data into four fixed rolling windows. Our overall empirical results revealed that Bitcoin price fluctuations were unpredictable, inferring market efficiency. The findings implied that Bitcoin prices adhered to a random walk pattern, making it challenging to identify abnormal trends in this emerging market.