Metaverse companies, Bitcoin, green bonds, and selected precious metals: Is there any relationship?
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Abstract
This study investigates the interdependencies between metaverse-related companies and diverse asset classes, including cryptocurrencies, green bonds, and precious metals. This study primarily aims to determine whether the growth potential of the metaverse sector is reflected in the market dynamics of Bitcoin, the S&P Green Bond Index, and the S&P GSCI indices for gold, silver, and palladium. Employing a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) framework, the study analyses daily data from early July 2015 to mid-July 2025. The methodology incorporates stationarity testing, Johansen co-integration analysis, and Granger causality tests to identify both long- and short-run relationships.
Key findings reveal the absence of long-run cointegration, suggesting that these assets do not share a stable equilibrium over time. However, significant short-run causality were identified. In the first model, the returns on the STOXX Global Metaverse Index are Granger-caused by green bonds, whereas the metaverse index itself provides predictive information for both green bonds and gold. In the second model, metaverse returns exhibit a unidirectional causal influence on silver and palladium. These results suggest that while metaverse stocks are somewhat isolated from long-term commodity trends, they play a critical role in short-term price discovery within specific financial and metal markets
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