Wall Street is in panic and fear. The 30-day volatility of the S&P500 is one and a half times higher than that of bitcoin.

Amid the financial crisis and fear regarding the coronavirus pandemic, volatility in the US stock market exceeded the average bitcoin price volatility over the past 30 days, crypto analyst at ARK Investment Management Yassin Elmanjra notes.

The S&P 500’s 30-day volatility of daily returns, or historical volatility, jumped to nearly 80%. This is almost 10 times higher than the average volatility of the index over the past 12 months (27%), according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Bitcoin price volatility, meanwhile, stands at 138% compared to the average volatility of 65% seen in the March 2019-February 2019 period, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index.

The 30-day volatility of daily returns is calculated based on the daily profit or loss for each asset included in the S&P500 index for the last 30 trading days.

We observe a unique situation on Wall Street when a cryptocurrency shows less volatility than the stock index.

The volatility of the S&P500 index began to increase in the first week of March, when the coronavirus epidemic outside of China began to gain momentum, and countries around the world began to impose strict restrictions on the movement of citizens and flights. This has raised concerns among investors about the global recession. The situation worsened in the second and third week of March. Investors were actively selling stocks and transferring assets to traditional safe haven assets, such as gold or US Treasury bonds. This exacerbated the situation in the market, where daily fluctuations of 4%-5% became the new norm.