If bitcoin is a bubble, the ��panic�� stage is near: economist

It isn��t uncommon for crypto-skeptics to look a bitcoin chart and, without much analysis, label it the tulip bubble of the 21st century.

But economists note that bubbles are complex things, with a life cycle of their own.

According to the late Hyman Minsky, the U.S. economist whose theories on financial fragility came to the fore during the 2008 financial crisis when a surge in private debt accumulation led to the collapse in the housing market, an asset bubble has five stages; displacement, boom, euphoria, profit-taking, and panic.

Using this framework, Joost van der Burgt, a policy adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said that if bitcoin