Pricing Cryptocurrency Options : The Case of Bitcoin and CRIX

Cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin (BTC), which comprise a new revolutionary asset class, have drawn extraordinary worldwide attention. The characteristics of the cryptocurrency/ BTC include a high level of speculation, extreme volatility and price discontinuity. In this paper, we propose a pricing mechanism based on a stochastic volatility with correlated jump (SVCJ) model and compare it to a flexible co-jump model by Bandi and Renò (2016) allowing for non-affine structure. The calibration results of both models confirm the impact of jumps and co-jumps on options obtained via simulation and an analysis of the implied volatility curve. We show that a sizeable proportion of price jumps are significantly and contemporaneously anti-correlated with jumps in volatility. Our study comprises pioneering research on pricing BTC options. We show how proposed pricing mechanism underscores the importance of jumps in the cryptocurrency derivatives markets