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 (nobody likes missing out when their friends and colleagues are getting rich). 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. The virtual currency was trading at about $6,700 on Tuesday.“We believe the speculative froth phase of cryptocurrency investment -- and perhaps peak prices -- may have passed,” the analysts wrote.

Source: Economic Times April 10, 2018 04:52 UTC