HONG KONG: Is the rise of Bitcoin analogous to the spread of an infectious disease?Analysts at Barclays Plc saw enough similarities to develop a pricing model for the cryptocurrency that takes its cues from the world of epidemiology. Their diagnosis: Bitcoin has probably peaked.The Barclays model divides the pool of potential Bitcoin investors into three groups: susceptible, infected and immune. It assumes that as prices rise, “infections” spread by word-of-mouth. Barclays analysts led by Joseph Abate in New York explained the rest in a note to clients on Tuesday:“As more of the population become asset holders, the share of the population available to become new buyers -- the potential â€host’ population -- falls, while the share of the population that are potential sellers (â€recoveries’) increases. Eventually, this leads to a plateauing of prices, and progressively, as random shocks to the larger supply population push up the ratio of sellers to buyers, prices begin to fall.

Source: The Star April 10, 2018 08:48 UTC