TimeGPT’s Potential in Cryptocurrency Forecasting: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Economic Value

Accurate and efficient cryptocurrency price prediction is vital for investors in the volatile crypto market. This study comprehensively evaluates nine models—including baseline, zero-shot, and deep learning architectures—on 21 major cryptocurrencies using daily and hourly data. Our multi-dimensional evaluation assesses models based on prediction accuracy (MAE, RMSE, MAPE), speed, statistical significance (Diebold–Mariano test), and economic value (Sharpe Ratio). Our research found that the optimally fine-tuned TimeGPT model (without variables) demonstrated superior performance across both Daily and Hourly datasets, with its statistical leadership confirmed by the Diebold–Mariano test. Fine-tuned Chronos excelled in daily predictions, while TFT was a close second to TimeGPT for hourly forecasts. Crucially, zero-shot models like TimeGPT and Chronos were tens of times faster than traditional deep learning models, offering high accuracy with superior computational efficiency. A key finding from our economic analysis is that a model’s effectiveness is highly dependent on market characteristics. For instance, TimeGPT with variables showed exceptional profitability in the volatile ETH market, whereas the zero-shot Chronos model was the top performer for the cyclical BTC market. This also highlights that variables have asset-specific effects with TimeGPT: improving predictions for ICP, LTC, OP, and DOT, but hindering UNI, ATOM, BCH, and ARB. Recognizing that prior research has overemphasized prediction accuracy, this study provides a more holistic and practical standard for model evaluation by integrating speed, statistical significance, and economic value. Our findings collectively underscore TimeGPT’s immense potential as a leading solution for cryptocurrency forecasting, offering a top-tier balance of accuracy and efficiency. This multi-dimensional approach provides critical, theoretical, and practical guidance for investment decisions and risk management, proving especially valuable in real-time trading scenarios.