Bitcoin’s Price Efficiency and Safe Haven Properties during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison

Abstract As the COVID-19 outbreak became a global pandemic, traditional financial market indicators were significantly affected. We examine the price efficiency and net cross-correlations among Bitcoin, gold, a US dollar index, and the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index (MSCI World) during the four months after the World Health Organization officially designated COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Using intraday data, we find that Bitcoin prices were more efficient than the US dollar and MSCI World indices. Using a detrended partial-cross-correlation analysis, our results show that net cross-correlations vary across time scales. Our results suggest that when the time scale is greater than two months, gold can be considered as a safe haven for investors holding the MSCI World and US dollar indices and when the time scale exceeds three months, Bitcoin can be considered a safe haven for the MSCI World index.