What Drives Bitcoin Volatility?

Structural, Behavioral, and Macro-Level Determinants of Price Instability

Bitcoin’s meteoric rise over the past decade has not come quietly. With daily price swings that would be considered extreme in any other asset class, Bitcoin’s volatility remains one of its most defining—and divisive—features. While volatility is often dismissed as a byproduct of immaturity or speculation, a more structured inquiry reveals that it is the emergent outcome of overlapping forces: microstructure dynamics, market sentiment, macro spillovers, regulatory flux, and leverage-driven amplification.

In this article, I provide a comprehensive synthesis of the empirical and theoretical drivers of Bitcoin volatility, incorporating both time-series insights and structural mechanisms.