Heterogeneous Exposures to Systematic and Idiosyncratic Risk across Crypto Assets: A Divide-and-Conquer Approach

Aslanidis, Nektarios and Bariviera, Aurelio and Kapetanios, George and Sarafidis, Vasilis (2025): Heterogeneous Exposures to Systematic and Idiosyncratic Risk across Crypto Assets: A Divide-and-Conquer Approach.

Abstract

This paper analyzes realized return behavior across a broad set of crypto assets by estimating heterogeneous exposures to idiosyncratic and systematic risk. A key challenge arises from the latent nature of broader economy-wide risk sources: macro-financial proxies are unavailable at high-frequencies, while the abundance of low-frequency candidates offers limited guidance on empirical relevance. To address this, we develop a two-stage ``divide-and-conquer'' approach. The first stage estimates exposures to high-frequency idiosyncratic and market risk only, using asset-level IV regressions. The second stage identifies latent economy-wide factors by extracting the leading principal component from the model residuals and mapping it to lower-frequency macro-financial uncertainty and sentiment-based indicators via high-dimensional variable selection. Structured patterns of heterogeneity in exposures are uncovered using Mean Group estimators across asset categories. The method is applied to a broad sample of crypto assets, covering more than 80% of total market capitalization. We document short-term mean reversion and significant average exposures to idiosyncratic volatility and illiquidity. Green and DeFi assets are, on average, more exposed to market-level and economy-wide risk than their non-Green and non-DeFi counterparts. By contrast, stablecoins are less exposed to idiosyncratic, market-level, and economy-wide risk factors relative to non-stablecoins. At a conceptual level, our study develops a coherent framework for isolating distinct layers of risk in crypto markets. Empirically, it sheds light on how return sensitivities vary across digital asset categories -- insights that are important for both portfolio design and regulatory oversight.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Idiosyncratic and systematic risk; divide and conquer; heterogeneous exposures; endogeneity; IV estimation; high-dimensional analysis; multiple testing boosting; principal components; stablecoins; green assets; defi assets
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Single Equation Models ; Single Variables > C23 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C3 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models ; Multiple Variables > C33 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C4 - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics > C44 - Operations Research ; Statistical Decision Theory; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C5 - Econometric Modeling > C55 - Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C5 - Econometric Modeling > C58 - Financial Econometrics; G - Financial Economics > G1 - General Financial Markets > G10 - General; G - Financial Economics > G1 - General Financial Markets > G11 - Portfolio Choice ; Investment Decisions

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