• The research paper emphasized the influential role of social media platforms in shaping cryptocurrency adoption and activity levels. 

• One of the most notable findings from their research is their conclusion that social media sentiment is a reliable predictor of cryptocurrency returns.

A recent research investigation by Pennsylvania State University scholars explored the correlation between social media, attitudes, emotions, and the cryptocurrency market. The study’s findings challenge traditional assumptions associated with similar patterns observed in other financial markets.

The research paper emphasized the influential role of social media platforms in shaping cryptocurrency adoption and activity levels. Surprisingly, the study revealed that sentiment expressed on social media platforms robustly predicted crypto returns. In contrast, traditional news media sentiment did not have the same impact.

“Our findings indicate that social media sentiment significantly predicts crypto returns, while sentiment from news media does not.”

Moreover, employing natural language processing techniques, the researchers analyzed an extensive dataset comprising millions of financial news articles and social media comments. Through this analysis, they generated sentiment scores across 53 different topics and attention metrics for over 300 cryptocurrencies.

Exploring the Correlation Between Social Media Activity and Crypto Performance

Subsequently, the researchers compared the returns observed during a specific timeframe with the corresponding sentiment extracted from news and social media sources.

One of the most notable findings from their research is their conclusion that social media sentiment is a reliable predictor of cryptocurrency returns. In contrast, the risk premium channel does not exhibit the same predictive power. Cryptocurrency is often discussed as a highly volatile asset. In typical markets, such volatility usually leads to a higher risk premium and lower adoption and activity.

Taking the housing market as an example, research shows that as market volatility increases, consumer sentiment decreases, and would-be purchasers tend to become risk-averse. The Penn State team’s research indicates that this isn’t the case with cryptocurrency. In its conclusion, the team writes that market exuberance positively relates to momentum but “does not positively predict volatility.” The research revealed that market exuberance positively impacted momentum while exerting minimal influence on volatility.

The researchers ultimately posit that the observed phenomenon could be attributed to the significant presence of consumer investors holding substantial cryptocurrency portfolios who actively engage on social media platforms dedicated to cryptocurrencies. They further recommend conducting additional research to explore the intricate relationship between social media sentiment and cryptocurrency returns.

 Leveraging Technology to Analyze Sentiment in the Cryptocurrency Market

Social media represents a potential indicator for assessing sentiment within the cryptocurrency market. The performance of cryptocurrencies and their popularity share a direct relationship. Social Market Analytics (SMA), as reported by TheTie, employs machine learning and natural language processing technology to analyze approximately 850,000,000 tweets daily, aiming to determine sentiment regarding cryptocurrencies.

 From the beginning of 2021 until July 2022, investing in the coins with the highest daily sentiment and holding them for a day resulted in a remarkable return of 1,907%. Comparatively, purchasing the top 20% of the most popular currencies daily during this period yielded gains over 20 times higher than Bitcoin and four times greater than Ethereum.