Abstract:

The aim of this study is to investigate whether the cryptocurrency market, spesific to Bitcoin, is integrated with traditional financial markets in Turkey. Investigation of the integration of this market, which has reached a capitalization of approximately 1.6 trillion USD in the world and is constantly on the agenda in Turkey, with the financial markets will give investors an idea about the market. With this aim price of Bitcoin,  BIST 100 index to reflect stock markets, gold prices, and USA Dolar Exchange rate were taken into account as related variables. Johansen Cointegration analysis results for the period between May 2013 and April 2021 show that there is no long-term relationship between variables. The same analysis was applied for the period from December 2019 to April 2021, based on the idea that possible changes in investors' behavior in the period after the COVID19 outbreak may change this relationship. However, a long-term relationship was still not encountered. In short-term relationships, there are differences for the two periods. The results obtained in the study are evaluated as that the crypto money market, specific to Bitcoin, does not create a long-term integration with other markets in Turkey, and acts according to its own dynamics. Therefore, it can be said that investors should be very careful while investing in this market. The results support the argument that an indicator that can predict the direction of the cryptocurrency market and give an idea to investors is not yet available in Turkey.

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