Cryptocurrency Price Correlations in Bitcoin, Dollar Flipped in 2018, Binance Finds

Price correlations among major cryptocurrencies increased against the U.S. dollar (USD) but fell in Bitcoin (BTC) terms, a new report from cryptocurrency exchange Binance revealed on March 20.

Part of an investigation into price trends within crypto markets since 2017, Binance found that behavior among assets is diverging depending on whether returns are denominated in USD or BTC.

Specifically, USD returns from holdings were more correlated among cryptocurrencies within the three months of 2019 ending March 1 than in 2017.

BTC returns, by contrast, are less correlated in current conditions than they were eighteen months ago.

“Correlations in BTC returns are important as BTC remains one of the best price indicators of crypto markets for two key reasons,” Binance explained about the impetus behind its field of research.

Those reasons, the post said, are the liquidity and market dominance that Bitcoin continues to exhibit compared to other cryptocurrencies.

The results also point to more recent phenomena to occur within the market, notably stablecoins, which have taken over trading pairs which would once have been denominated in BTC.

Binance itself has adopted a highly bullish stance on stablecoin assets, choosing to add large numbers of them over the past six months.

The report concluded:

“While these changes in correlations coincided with the rise in stablecoin volume and stablecoin trading pair offerings across exchanges, the analysis reveals additional idiosyncratic factors that should be considered when constructing an optimal cryptoasset portfolio.”