Less than a week after referring to the rise of Bitcoin prices as an infectious disease, news surfaced Monday that Barclays (LON:BARC) seemed to not have completely shut the door on the space.
On the table could be a crypto trading desk.
Bloomberg reported that although the bank has no concrete plans to start a cryptocurrency trading desk, it has been gauging clients’ interest for such an operation.
Too strong a pull?
Executives of banks like Barclays have been extremely resistant to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
A main reason relates to their biases for fiat currency, which of course is what they deal in, not cryptos.
No matter, Bitcoin’s resilience, despite the volatility, shows that it is here to stay. This has led many bank executives to reconsider their stances on the space. If they are not reconsidering their stances, they are at least more open to having discussions about the crypto space.
They may still have reservations about cryptos, or flat out disdain for them, but they recognize that their clients want to be able to trade in the space.
The flu
Such seems to be the case with Barclays. We told you last week about how Barclays said the sudden boom in Bitcoin prices late last year closely resembled the spread of an infectious disease.
It blamed the price declines on buyers developing ‘immunity’ to the lure of the digital currency, we reported.
The observation was made that the increased speculation in the digital currency market during the latter half of 2017 was something akin to flu season, which is now starting to wear off, leading to the drop in prices.
With those types of comments, it’s interesting that the bank is now reportedly trying to get a better idea of its clients’ appetites for trading cryptos.
Pricing model
When we last reported on Barclays, we told you about a client note it had sent out in which it discussed the creation of a pricing model for the digital currency. According to the model, Bitcoin’s best days are likely behind it.
In a client note, it was stated:
As more of the population become asset holders, the share of the population available to become new buyers -- the potential ‘host’ population -- falls, while the share of the population that are potential sellers (‘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. That induces speculative selling pressure as price declines are projected forward exponentially.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
