ABSTRACT
This paper examines the efficiency and asymmetric multifractal features of NFTs, DeFi, cryptocurrencies, and traditional assets using Asymmetric Multifractal Cross-Correlations Analysis covering the period from November 2017 to February 2022. Considering the full sample with a significant variation among asset classes, the study reveals DeFi-DigiByte is the most efficient while the cryptocurrency-Tether is the least efficient. However, S&P 500 showed high efficiency before COVID-19, and DeFi-Enjin Coin advanced as the most efficient asset during COVID-19. The volatility dynamics of NFTs, DeFi, and cryptocurrencies follow strong nonlinear cross-correlations, but evidence of weaker nonlinearity exists in traditional assets. Additionally, the sensitivity to smaller events in bull markets is high for NFTs and DeFi. The findings have significant implications for portfolio diversification when an investor's portfolio set includes traditional assets and cryptocurrency and relatively new blockchain-based assets like NFTs and DeFi. © 2023 The Authors
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the risk and returns on one of the newest digital asset classes instruments, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), by accounting for tail dependence of higher-order moments and portfolio characteristics. We used a wide range of asset classes, encompassing equites, fixed income securities, and commodities, and document the desirable hedging and portfolio attributes of NFTs by employing Conditional Value-at-Risk (CoVaR) and ∆CoVaRs with various copula functions. We found that NFTs exhibit beneficial investment and hedging attributes under all market conditions, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Our findings have important implications for investors, risk managers, and regulators. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.
ABSTRACT
Interest in leveraging blockchain technology to boost healthcare and e-health solutions has lately increased. Blockchain has proven to have enormous promise in a range of e-health industries because of its decentralized and reliable nature, including the secure exchange of electronic health records (EHRs) and database access management among numerous medical entities. A unique paradigm known as the "patient-centric approach” places the patient at the center of the healthcare system and gives them complete control over who has access to and can share their personal health information. Strong confidentiality and safety requirements are necessary for health information. Additionally, other concerns must be resolved, such as secrecy, interoperability, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and timeliness. This paper offers a patient-centric privacy-preserving framework for an efficient and safe medical record to address these problems. Based on three parameters transaction cost, execution time, and gas cost. Three blockchain platforms are compared by using the smart contract to find out the suitable platform for the implementation of this framework. Blockchain platforms served as a benchmark for the performance assessment of a designed framework. Although blockchain will not fix every issue in healthcare organizations, it will undoubtedly assist in dramatically reducing some of the most critical ones.
ABSTRACT
Virtual digital assets including cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens and decentralized financial asset have been initially used as an alternative currency but are currently being purchased as an asset and hedging instruments. Exponentially growing trading volume witnesses the growing inclination of investors towards these assets, and this calls for volatility analysis of these assets. In this reference, the present study assessed and compared the volatility of returns from investment in virtual digital assets, equity and commodity market. Daily closing prices of selected cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens and decentralized financial assets, stock indices and commodities have been analysed forthe post-covid period. Since returns were observed to be heteroscedastic, autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic models have been used to assess the volatility. The results indicate a low correlation of commodity investment with all other investment opportunities. Also, Tether and Dai have been observed to be negatively correlated with stock market. This indicates the possibility of minimizing risk through portfolio diversification. In terms of average returns, virtual digital assets are discerned to be better options than equity stock or commodity yet the variance scenario of these investment avenues is not very rosy. The volatility parameters reveal that unlike commodity market, virtual digital assets have got a significant impact of external shocks in the short-run. Further, the long run persistency of shocks is observed to be higher for the UK stock market, followed by Ethereum, Tether and Dai. The present analysis is crucial as the decision about its acceptance as legal tender money is still sub-judice in some countries. The results are expected to provide insight to regulatory bodies about these assets. © Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
This study conducted the econometric analysis to test the hedge and safe haven effects of Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) on major traditional asset markets in the global financial system. We investigate the estimates of these effects in times of extreme market conditions and the COVID-19 crisis. Our empirical results show evidence of the hedge and safe haven properties of NFTs, confirming two main findings: (i) NFTs act as a hedge and safe haven for particular stock markets and oil, bond, and USD indices, even though the degree of effects varies across asset classes;and (ii) NFTs also serve as sheltering facilities for the markets mentioned above, with more substantial safe haven benefits for bond and USD indices during the recent pandemic crisis. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ABSTRACT
Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) assets have seen a growing media coverage and garnered considerable investor traction despite being classified as a niche in the digital financial sector. The lack of substantial research to demystify the dynamics of NFT and DeFi coins motivates the scrupulous analysis of the said sector. This work aims to critically delve into the evolutionary pattern of the NFTs and DeFis for performing predictive analytics of the same during the COVID-19 regime. The multivariate framework comprises the systematic inclusion of explanatory features embodying technical indicators, key macroeconomic indicators, and constructs linked to media hype and sentiment pertinent to the pandemic, nonlinear feature engineering, and ensemble machine learning. Isometric Mapping (ISOMAP) and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) techniques are conjugated with Gradient Boosting Regression (GBR) and Random Forest (RF) for enabling the predictive analysis. The predictive performance rationalizes the frameworks' capacity to accurately predict the prices of the majority of the NFT and DeFi coins during the ongoing financial distress period. Additionally, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) methodologies are used to comprehend the nature of the impact of the explanatory variables. Findings suggest that the daily movement of the NFTs and DeFi highly depends on their past historical movement. © 2023 The Authors
ABSTRACT
The Metaverse allows the integration of physical and digital versions of users, processes, and environments where entities communicate, transact, and socialize. With the shift towards Extended Reality (XR) technologies, the Metaverse is envisioned to support a wide range of applicative verticals. It will support a seamless mix of physical and virtual worlds (realities) and, thus, will be a game changer for the Future Internet, built on the Semantic Web framework. The Metaverse will be ably assisted by the convergence of emerging wireless communication networks (such as Fifth-Generation and Beyond networks) or Sixth-Generation (6G) networks, Blockchain (BC), Web 3.0, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). It has the potential for convergence in diverse industrial applications such as digital twins, telehealth care, connected vehicles, virtual education, social networks, and financial applications. Recent studies on the Metaverse have focused on explaining its key components, but a systematic study of the Metaverse in terms of industrial applications has not yet been performed. Owing to this gap, this survey presents the salient features and assistive Metaverse technologies. We discuss a high-level and generic Metaverse framework for modern industrial cyberspace and discuss the potential challenges and future directions of the Metaverse's realization. A case study on Metaverse-assisted Real Estate Management (REM) is presented, where the Metaverse governs a Buyer–Broker–Seller (BBS) architecture for land registrations. We discuss the performance evaluation of the current land registration ecosystem in terms of cost evaluation, trust probability, and mining cost on the BC network. The obtained results show the viability of the Metaverse in REM setups.
ABSTRACT
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have garnered attention from investors and the general public. This pioneering study analyzes the connectedness of five NFT segments by employing the TVP-VAR based connectedness approach of Antonakakis et al. (2020) to identify the transmitter and receivers of spillover for both return and volatility of NFT segments. Our results show that Utility NFTs are the main transmitter of spillover, whereas the collectible NFTs are the main recipient of spillover for both return and volatility. Our findings have important implications for both investors and policy makers. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) assets have seen a growing media coverage and garnered considerable investor traction despite being classified as a niche in the digital financial sector. The lack of substantial research to demystify the dynamics of NFT and DeFi coins motivates the scrupulous analysis of the said sector. This work aims to critically delve into the evolutionary pattern of the NFTs and DeFis for performing predictive analytics of the same during the COVID-19 regime. The multivariate framework comprises the systematic inclusion of explanatory features embodying technical indicators, key macroeconomic indicators, and constructs linked to media hype and sentiment pertinent to the pandemic, nonlinear feature engineering, and ensemble machine learning. Isometric Mapping (ISOMAP) and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) techniques are conjugated with Gradient Boosting Regression (GBR) and Random Forest (RF) for enabling the predictive analysis. The predictive performance rationalizes the frameworks' capacity to accurately predict the prices of the majority of the NFT and DeFi coins during the ongoing financial distress period. Additionally, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) methodologies are used to comprehend the nature of the impact of the explanatory variables. Findings suggest that the daily movement of the NFTs and DeFi highly depends on their past historical movement.
ABSTRACT
The market for crypto assets has grown rapidly in the last couple of years. Buzzwords like cryptocurrency, Non-fungible tokens (hereinafter "NFTs") and metaverse have gone viral. Celebrities, artists, pop singers, e-commerce platforms, financial institutes, airlines, and many others are selling NFTs featuring their icons. The prices for NFTs are soaring. "The Merge", created by digital artist Pak, was sold at US$91.8 million, purportedly one of the most expensive NFTs to date. Staggering numbers like this are piquing the public's curiosity in NFTs. As the market for crypto assets expands, disputes are rife. Suitable mechanisms for the resolution of crypto asset disputes are therefore indispensable. This paper will address potential disputes associated with crypto assets, especially NFTs and cryptocurrencies. It will discuss what types of disputes are likely to arise from them, whether and how the disputes may differ from the currently known disputes and the dispute resolution mechanisms that are applicable. This paper aims to explore whether arbitration is a suitable resolution mechanism for such disputes, how the new developments in international arbitration can help resolve them efficiently, and the potential for arbitration proceedings to adapt to them.
ABSTRACT
This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the connectedness between non-fungible tokens, decentralized finance coins, traditional financial assets, and cryptocurrencies. We employed a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive based frequency-dependent network connectedness approach to investigate return and volatility spillover effects between assets in time and frequency domains. The findings show that both the returns and volatility spillovers have been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and long- and short-term connectedness vary over the course of the pandemic. These findings have implications for investors, portfolio managers, and policymakers regarding their investment strategies, portfolio allocation, and risk monitoring.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we employ the NARDL model to examine whether non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can act as hedges and safe havens for stocks, bonds, US dollar, gold, crude oil and Bitcoin. In addition to examining whether NFTs can act as hedges for other assets during the full period (January 1, 2018–March 31, 2022), we also study the hedging properties of NFTs during the pre-COVID-19 period and the safe haven properties of NFTs in times of stress after the COVID-19 outbreak. The empirical results show that in the full period, NFTs are hedges for bonds, US dollar and gold on average;in the pre-COVID-19 period, NFTs are hedges for stocks and US dollar on average;in the COVID-19 period, NFTs can act as safe havens for US dollar. Our empirical findings have important implications for investors looking for hedging and safe haven instruments for major asset classes.
ABSTRACT
We study the relationship between return and volatility of non-fungible tokens (NFT) segments and media coverage during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in a connectedness framework. We document media coverage as a net transmitter of spillover for both the return and volatility of NFT segments. We find that NFTs representing the Utilities segment is a major transmitter of spillover. Our findings have important implications for portfolio managers, regulators, and policymakers.
ABSTRACT
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have garnered attention from investors and the general public. This pioneering study analyzes the connectedness of five NFT segments by employing the TVP-VAR based connectedness approach of Antonakakis et al. (2020) to identify the transmitter and receivers of spillover for both return and volatility of NFT segments. Our results show that Utility NFTs are the main transmitter of spillover, whereas the collectible NFTs are the main recipient of spillover for both return and volatility. Our findings have important implications for both investors and policy makers.
ABSTRACT
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) revolutionize crypto-landscape, becoming popular among investors and general public. This first-ever study of coherence between returns of NFTs and major assets employs the wavelet approach. The pairwise returns coherence between the considered markets grows throughout the Covid-19. Before the pandemic, NFTs lag behind stocks (2017) and bitcoin (2018), while lead gold (2018). We reveal that the returns coherence between NFTs and other assets is high/low for the two-week-plus/below-to-weeks investment horizons. We refine Aharon and Demir´s (2021) findings stating that NFTs absorbed risk during Covid-19 by demonstrating that this conclusion holds only in the short-run for below-two-weeks horizons.
ABSTRACT
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) make it technically possible for digital assets to be owned and traded, introducing the concept of scarcity in the digital realm for the first time. Resulting from this technical development, this paper asks the question, do they provide an opportunity for fundraising for galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM), by selling ownership of digital copies of their collections? Although NFTs in their current format were first invented in 2017 as a means for game players to trade virtual goods, they reached the mainstream in 2021, when the auction house Christie’s held their first-ever sale exclusively for an NFT of a digital image, that was eventually sold for a record 69 million USD. The potential of NFTs to generate significant revenue for artists and museums by selling effectively a cryptographically signed copy of a digital image (similar to real-world limited editions, which are signed and numbered copies of a given artwork), has sparked the interest of the financially deprived museum and heritage sector with world-renowned institutions such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Hermitage Museum, having already employed NFTs in order to raise funds. Concerns surrounding the environmental impact of blockchain technology and the rise of malicious projects, exploiting previously digitised heritage content made available through OpenGLAM licensing, have attracted criticism over the speculative use of the technology. In this paper, we present the current state of affairs in relation to NFTs and the cultural heritage sector, identifying challenges, whilst highlighting opportunities that they create for revenue generation, in order to help address the ever-increasing financial challenges of galleries and museums.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we analyze the connectedness between returns for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other financial assets (equities, bonds, currencies, gold, oil, Ethereum) during the period from January 2018 to June 2021. By using the Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregressions (TVP-VAR) approach, we show that the overall connectedness between the returns for financial assets increased during the COVID-19 period. Our static analysis shows that the behavior of the majority of NFT returns is attributable to endogenous shocks and only a small portion of this variation resulted from the impact of innovation in other assets. The results suggest that NFTs are mainly independent of shocks from common assets classes and even from their close relation, Ethereum. The dynamic analysis across time reveals that during normal times, NFTs act as transmitters of systemic risk to some degree, but during stressful times, their role shifts, and they act as absorbers of risk spillovers. This suggests that NFTs may have diversification benefits during turbulent times, as apparent during the COVID-19 crisis, and especially around the great March 2020 market plunge.