Information Theory Quantifiers in Cryptocurrency Time Series Analysis

Abstract

This paper investigates the temporal evolution of cryptocurrency time series using information measures such as complexity, entropy, and Fisher information. The main objective is to differentiate between various levels of randomness and chaos. The methodology was applied to 176 daily closing price time series of different cryptocurrencies, from October 2015 to October 2024, with more than 30 days of data and not completely null. Complexity–entropy causality plane (CECP) analysis reveals that daily cryptocurrency series with lengths of two years or less exhibit chaotic behavior, while those longer than two years display stochastic behavior. Most longer series resemble colored noise, with the parameter k varying between 0 and 2. Additionally, Natural Language Processing (NLP) analysis identified the most relevant terms in each white paper, facilitating a clustering method that resulted in four distinct clusters. However, no significant characteristics were found across these clusters in terms of the dynamics of the time series. This finding challenges the assumption that project narratives dictate market behavior. For this reason, investment recommendations should prioritize real-time informational metrics over whitepaper content.