Bitcoin price fluctuation by Twitter sentiment analysis pre- and post- COVID- 19 pandemic

Abstract Cryptocurrency investment especially Bitcoin, has become favourable over recent years due to promising returns in the future. However, the movement of price is mainly speculation-based as these currencies are still new in the market. The COVID-19 outbreak boosted research interest in predicting the price fluctuation of Bitcoin since cryptocurrency trading produced many millionaires. Five lexicon-based Twitter sentiment analysis approaches are examined to see the effect of Tweets on the price of Bitcoin during the pre- and post- COVID-19 period. Results show that negative Twitter sentiments affected the price of Bitcoin pre- COVID-19 and the second year of post- COVID-19 when Elon Musk actively criticised Bitcoin on Twitter.