The 2018 bear trend brought an increase in correlation across the leading cryptocurrency markets, with recent research indicating that 10 of the top 15 crypto assets by market cap show a price correlation of more than 64%. Additionally, five cryptocurrency pairs show a correlation larger than 80% for 2018 – ADA and XLM, BTC and LTC, XMR and BTC, ETH and LTC, and XMR and LTC.

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Research Finds Significant Correlation Between Leading Crypto Assets

New analysis has found the prices of bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin core (BTC), ethereum (ETH), ripple (XRP), eos (EOS), stellar (XLM), litecoin (LTC), cardano (ADA), iota (MIOTA), and monero (XMR) to be positively correlated, with all of said crypto assets found to have an average price correlation of between 64.7% and 74.1% when compared with one another.

Five pairings were found to have a correlation higher than 80% – ADA and XLM with 83.6%, BTC and LTC with 83.5%, XMR and BTC with 82.9%, ETH and LTC with 82.7%, and XMR and LTC with 80.6%.

Tron (TRX) comprised the sole cryptocurrency examined to produce an average correlation of less than 50%, with an average correlation of 49.6% when compared with other leading markets.

The research also noted that Proof of Work cryptocurrencies are generally less correlated with crypto assets utilizing alternative consensus mechanisms.

Price Correlation Doubles Year-Over-Year

Compared with the previous year, 2018 saw the correlation between many leading cryptocurrencies more than double.

BTC’s average price correlation increased by 150% from 29.3% in 2017 to 73% in 2018, while ETH’s correlation increased 154% from 29.2% to 74.1%. XRP saw the greatest spike in price correlation, which increased by 220% year-over-year, while XMR saw the lowest percentage increase in correlation among examined cryptocurrencies – rising 105% from 34.6% to 71%. XLM correlation increased 114% from 30.4% to 64.9%, and LTC correlation increased 132% from 30.9% to 71.8%.

2018 also saw in increase in the volume correlation between leading cryptocurrencies year-over-year, with BTC up from 34.1% in 2017 to 53.2% in 2018, ETH up from 31% to 48.9%, XRP up from 31.1% to 45.2%, and XMR up from 20.3% to 22.8%. XLM volume correlation increased more doubled from 12.5% in 2017 to 28.4% in 2018, as did LTC volume correlation, which increased from 15.8% to 37.3%.

Do you expect 2019 to bring a further increase in correlation between the top cryptocurrency markets? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Samuel Haig

Samuel Haig is a journalist who has been completely obsessed with bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012. Samuel lives in Tasmania, Australia, where he attended the University of Tasmania and majored in Political Science, and Journalism, Media & Communications. Samuel has written about the dialectics of decentralization, and is also a musician and kangaroo riding enthusiast.

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