The Influence of Stablecoin Issuances on Cryptocurrency Markets

Abstract

Stablecoins are digital currencies whose value is pegged to fiat currencies like the dollar or other assets. They were created as a more flexible alternative to fiat currencies for cryptocurrency exchanges and constitute an increasingly important aspect of cryptocurrency markets and alternative finance. We analyze the influence of stablecoin issuances on the returns of major cryptocurrencies across 565 issuance events of $1 million or more for seven different stablecoins on four different blockchains between April 2019 and March 2020. Our event study reveals cryptocurrency market downturns in the week before a stablecoin issuance and positive abnormal returns for major cryptocurrencies in the twenty-four hours before and after the issuance. Effect sizes differ across stablecoins. Counterintuitively, we find that issuance size does not significantly affect the abnormal returns. We conclude that stablecoin issuances contribute to price discovery and market efficiency of cryptocurrencies.

Keywords: Market efficiency, Informational efficiency, Price discovery, Asset pricing, Event study, Transaction activity, Tether, Bitcoin, Ethereum

JEL Classification: G10, G14