NFTs:

Predicting NFT price development

This thesis should assess the predictive power regarding the price of NFT collections.
Based on historical time-series data (floor price, number of sales, number of owners ...) that will be provided by our industry partner Blockbrain, you will detect features in the data that can identify relevant NFT Buy and Sell signals. A further potential data source you can add would be sentiment (based on Twitter and Discord activity). Please contact Andre Guettler if you are interested.

Predicting NFT scams

This thesis should assess early signals for NFT collections that turn out to be scams or so called “rug pulls”. Based on historical quantitative and qualitative data (Ethereum on-chain data and off-chain like news, twitter, ...) that you will identify and select as data sources (some of it can be provided by our industry partner Blockbrain), you will search for relevant features that are common for scam NFT projects. Please contact Andre Guettler if you are interested.

Price Discovery

This thesis should carry out a (basic) analysis of price discovery in NFT markets. This project requires an average programming knowledge. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Market Microstructure

This thesis should carry out a (basic) analysis of the market microstructure in NFT markets. This project requires an average programming knowledge. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

 

Crypto assets:

How much crypto assets should be in your portfolio? (reserved)

The thesis should analyze how much crypto asssets should be in your portfolio. Based on Platanakis and Urquhart (2019) and the papers cited in this publication, you should use the Black-Litterman Model to come up with suitable crypto portfolio weights. Please contact Andre Guettler if you are interested.

The cleansing effect of flash loan attacks

The thesis should investigate flash loans. Besides characterising these type of short-term, uncollateralized loans, the cleansing effect of flash loan attacks should be analyzed, i.e., how vulnerable protokols such as  bZX or Harvest Finance have been (see first material here and here; more technical paper). In some way, flash loans facilitate stress testing new protokols and hence can be seen as getting rid of poorly designed DeFi protokols. Please contact Andre Guettler if you are interested. 

Airdrop Price Development

The thesis should analyze the price developments of crypto token airdrops such as the recent $SOS. In particular, it should build upon prospect theory because airdops are a special case in which the purchase price equals zero (or close to zero in case you have to claim the new tokens and pay transaction costs, i.e., gas fees on Ethereum). Please contact Andre Guettler if you are interested. 

Predicting Bitcoin

This thesis should assess the predictive power of several time series regarding the Bitcoin price. Potential data comprises Bitcoin prices (open, high, low, close), trading volume, the number of trades, market maker activity, the long short ratio (of Bitcoin futures) and sentiment (signaling attention on Twitter, Reddit and Bitcointalk). You may use all or a part of this data, or retrieve (additional) data yourself. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Arbitrage Opportunites between Crypto Exchanges

This thesis should evaluate arbitrage opportunities (that is, price differences) between different crypto exchanges. You should use for example minutely data of Bitcoin prices (open, high, low, close), trading volume, and the number of trades of different exchanges. You may use all or a part of this data, or retrieve (additional) data yourself. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Crypto Futures Leverage

This thesis will investigate the leverage used by traders in crypto futures. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Bitcoin Variance Swaps

There are Bitcoin Variance Swaps traded, based on the Bitcoin Volatility Index BVIN. This thesis should examine the variance risk premium and the settlement of these products to assess to what extent they are vulnerable to market manipulation. We recommend this paper and this blog post as starting point. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Pump and Dump

This thesis will examine pump an dump schemes in the crypto space. Please contact Alexander Wiedenmann if you are interested.

Asset management and asset pricing:

SPAC Investments

SPACs are special purpose acquisition companies: Entities IPOing to acquire privately held companies and make them tradable in a non-tradition manner. This thesis should gather a sample of european SPACs and assess their return. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Value Investing: Stock Case Study

This thesis should pick a stock and assess valuation metrics from a value investor's approach. You may chose a stock yourself, or we are happy to propose a suitable company. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Economics of Leasing

This thesis will examine the value of a leasing company based on real data. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Short Attacks

For this thesis, you should gather a sample of companies hit by a short attack and investigate the longer-term impact of them, as well as any rules of thumb regarding the timing of a rallying afterwards or the final destruction of the targets. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Management Reactions against Short Attacks

This thesis should investigate the effectiveness of reactions of the management of publicly traded companies. For example, you could start by considering the time needed for the first reaction to public allegations and the corresponding stock price development. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Cboe VIX Earnings

According to an influential academic study (Griffin and Shams, 2018), the VIX is vulnerable to manipulation. However, Cboe Exchange, being responsible for the product, keeps quiet about the massive criticism. This behaviour might be the case because the VIX is a lucrative product of Cboe Exchange. This thesis should deduce an estimate of the gross profit and/or earnings per share of Cboe Exchange attributable to the VIX. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Leveraged Investment Strategies

The current inflation environment makes it seem appealing to boost returns of long term investments as follows: You take out a loan at for instance 3 percent interest and invest the money into stocks or other assets to earn higher returns than you pay interest. You then pay back the loan with dividends or from selling assets at a profit later. This thesis should assess the risks and returns of this strategy empirically. Furthermore, it should provide advice on which assets to choose. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Tracking Inflation

This thesis should investigate ways to build a portfolio tracking inflation. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

 

Banking:

Market Place and Transaction Banking

This thesis should conduct a case study of a specialty bank active in the fields of market place banking and transaction banking. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Silicon Valley Bank

This thesis should conduct a review of the recent events at Silicon Valley Bank. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Silvergate Capital

This thesis will investigate the economics and events at Silvergate Capital. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.

Factoring

This thesis will analyze an Italian bank specialized in factoring. Please contact Tim Baumgartner if you are interested.