Since the Covid-19 pandemic’s onset in March 2020, cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD) have been increasingly integrated into Asia’s financial system, highlighting the need for additional regulation, the International Monetary Fund said in a recent blog post. Returns and volatility correlations between cryptos and Asian stocks were low before the pandemic but they increased significantly since 2020, sparked by easy access to cheap borrowing via low interest rates alongside government stimulus payments. The return correlations of bitcoin (BTC-USD) and Indian stock markets, for example, have surged by 10-fold over the pandemic, “suggesting limited risk diversification benefits of crypto,” the IMF wrote. For some context, bitcoin (BTC-USD), the largest digital token by market cap, experienced a wild rally from the start of the pandemic to its November 2021 peak. During that time, its price jumped by over 1,000% to an all-time high of $68.9K. But as central banks like the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank tighten monetary policy to bring down inflationary pressures, bitcoin lost a big chunk of those gains, now up 302% to $20.64K as of Friday afternoon. Despite being elevated from prepandemic levels, the magnitude of BTC's lingering slump suggests that traders' risk appetite is narrowing as fiscal aid wanes. All in all, the increased relationship between cryptos and Asian equities pose certain ...