Abstract:

The onset of COVID-19 has become the defining event of 2020 and has affected financial markets all over the world, including cryptocurrencies. In this process, the interest in investing in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, which started to be seen as a safe haven like gold and other commodities, increased. For this purpose, in this study, the asymmetric effect of shocks in gold and oil prices on Bitcoin prices during the Covid-19 process was examined. Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) analysis method was used in the study. As the end of the analysis, it was concluded that negative shocks in gold prices in the long term affect Bitcoin prices positively, while negative shocks in oil prices affect Bitcoin prices negatively. It has been observed that positive shocks in gold and oil prices in the long term do not have a statistically significant effect on Bitcoin prices. In the short term, it has been determined that positive shocks in both gold and oil prices affect Bitcoin prices positively, while negative shocks have a negative impact on it. In conclusion, it is observed that Bitcoin can be ideal for financial diversification for global investors and take its place in the markets as a new virtual gold.

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