Cointegration Risks
Cointegration risk occurs when two assets that are expected to move together over the long term temporarily or permanently diverge. Many pair trading strategies rely on the assumption that if two assets are cointegrated, their price spread will eventually revert to a mean.
However, if the underlying relationship breaks ⎊ perhaps due to a fundamental change in one of the protocols or a shift in market liquidity ⎊ the spread can widen indefinitely. This is a major risk for market-neutral strategies that are not properly hedged against regime changes.
In the crypto space, where protocols evolve rapidly, historical cointegration is not a guarantee of future stability. Traders must constantly test for the persistence of the cointegrating relationship.
Failure to do so leads to significant losses when the expected convergence never happens.