Identifying the determinants of asset prices is one of the most important questions in finance. Traditional asset pricing theories are founded on the idea that equity prices should be determined by fundamentals such as earnings (Gordon 1959, Campbell and Shiller 1988). In contrast, the behavioral finance literature posits that prices do not always follow fundamentals due to investor sentiment trading (Shiller 1981, Baker and Wurgler 2006, Stambaugh et al. 2012). Eventually however, equity prices seem to trace their fundamentals (Pa´stor and Veronesi, 2003, 2006, Bartram and Grinblatt 2018).
Steep rises and unexpected dives in the price of cryptocurrencies are relatively common. As the market stabilises, the volatility has slowly decreased, but irrationality will always be part of the trading game.

Bitcoin’s surge continued overnight on Monday as the cryptocurrency soared to $68,568.85 in value in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to Coinbase.
When the spectre of restrictive regulation hovers over the cryptocurrency markets, steep drops invariably occur. If it happens to concern China or the US, brace yourself if you’re an investor—the market never stops trading, and what took months to build can crumble to nothing in an afternoon.