Author(s): Salih M. Sahi
Most countries in the world have experienced the spreading pandemic of COVID-19 in recent months. Different measures have been taken to reduce the death rate, significantly affecting the pure cryptocurrency exchanges across the world. This paper mainly aims to study the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the first 10 cryptocurrencies markets. The research used two major approaches: inductive and deductive. Deductive research moves from general to specific issues. In addition, in the deductive approach, a theoretical and conceptual structure is considered as the basis of the research. This structure is tested and compared with empirical observations. Our findings revealed many fascinating insights that facilitate understanding the effect of the crisis on the investors' behaviors. COVID-19 caused the value of most cryptocurrencies to decrease by roughly 50%, while that of equity lowered only 10%. It is concluded that despite the fast reduction of prices due to the COVID-19, the cryptocurrency markets have preserved their economic efficiency. The first insight is that once a crisis starts, investorstend to depart from traditional markets and enter alternative ones such as cryptocurrencies, at least during the early phases of the crisis.