Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31312465›Full record

ArticleRoyal Society open science2019

Are Bitcoin bubbles predictable? Combining a generalized Metcalfe's Law and the Log-Periodic Power Law Singularity model.

Spencer Wheatley, Didier Sornette, Tobias Huber, Max Reppen, Robert N Gantner

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Royal Society open science, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Spencer WheatleyDepartment of Management, Technology and Economics, ETH Zurich, Zürich Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-5668-0215
Didier SornetteDepartment of Management, Technology and Economics, ETH Zurich, Zürich Switzerland.
Tobias HuberDepartment of Management, Technology and Economics, ETH Zurich, Zürich Switzerland.
Max ReppenDepartment of Mathematics, ETH Zurich, Zürich Switzerland.
Robert N GantnerD ONE Solutions AG, Zürich Switzerland.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We develop a strong diagnostic for bubbles and crashes in Bitcoin, by analysing the coincidence (and its absence) of fundamental and technical indicators. Using a generalized Metcalfe's Law based on network properties, a fundamental value is quantified and shown to be heavily exceeded, on at least four occasions, by bubbles that grow and burst. In these bubbles, we detect a universal super-exponential unsustainable growth. We model this universal pattern with the Log-Periodic Power Law Singularity (LPPLS) model, which parsimoniously captures diverse positive feedback phenomena, such as herding and imitation. The LPPLS model is shown to provide an ex ante warning of market instabilities, quantifying a high crash hazard and probabilistic bracket of the crash time consistent with the actual corrections; although, as always, the precise time and trigger (which straw breaks the camel's back) is exogenous and unpredictable. Looking forward, our analysis identifies a substantial but not unprecedented overvaluation in the price of Bitcoin, suggesting many months of volatile sideways Bitcoin prices ahead (from the time of writing, March 2018).

Indexed as

BitcoinbubbleLog-Periodic Power Law SingularityMetcalfe’s Lawprediction

Identifiers

PMID31312465
PMCPMC6599809

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.