This article aims to analyse the hedging, diversifier and safe-haven properties of Bitcoin for the US Dollar Index (USDI). We explore the long-term relationship between USDI and Bitcoin by estimating a Markov-switching autoregressive (MS-AR) model with two regimes. Thus, the data used cover the period from 18 January 2010 to 30 June 2017 for both USDI and Bitcoin. The empirical findings based on the analysis of the MS-AR model report that investing in Bitcoin involves more benefits than USDI even if the economy is in a recession. However, by examining Bitcoin and USDI volatility, the research findings underline positive dependency between the two. Such results denote that Bitcoin does not act as a hedge, and not even as a safe haven, against USDI. We found that Bitcoin is merely a diversifier for USDI. Accordingly, the outcomes will help investors and portfolio risk managers to make more up-to-date investment analyses and decisions.
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