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This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on Bitcoin trading volume. Using data from Apple mobility trends and several time-series econometric models, we find that investors became active participants during the COVID-19 pandemic period and traded more bitcoins on days with low mobility associated with lockdown mandates. These results remain robust after controlling for stocks and gold returns, the VIX index, and the level of attention and sentiment toward Bitcoin, as measured by Google search frequencies and the tone of Tweets discussing Bitcoin. These results suggest that when individual investors have ample free time on their hands, they trade cryptocurrencies as a pastime and use the Bitcoin market as a form of entertainment. Moreover, our results have important implications concerning investors' herding behavior and overconfidence leading to noise trader risks and bubbles typically accompanied by high trading volume in cryptocurrency markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the causal relations between COVID-19 economic supports and Bitcoin markets. For this purpose, we first determined the degree of the integration of variables by implementing Fourier Augmented Dickey–Fuller unit root tests. Then, we carried out both linear (Bootstrap Toda–Yamamoto) and non-linear (Fractional Frequency Flexible Fourier form Toda–Yamamoto) causality tests to consider the nonlinearities in variables, to determine if the effects of multiple structural breaks were temporary or permanent, and to evaluate the unidirectional causality running from COVID-19-related economic supports and the price, volatility, and trading volume of Bitcoin. Our study included 158 countries, and we used daily data over the period from 1 January 2020 and 10 March 2022. The findings of this study provide evidence of unidirectional causalities running from COVID-19-related economic supports to the price, volatility, and trading volume of Bitcoin in most of the countries in the sample. The application of non-linear causality tests helped us obtain more evidence about these causalities. Some of these causalities were found to be permanent, and some of them were found to be temporary. The results of the study indicate that COVID-19-related economic supports can be considered a major driver of the surge in the Bitcoin market during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]