The bottom line with crypto is that it has zero intrinsic value. The only reason it skyrocketed for a while was because of the irrational herd mentality causing millions of people to keep investing in it because it was “going to the moon.” It was a classic bubble based upon nothing.
The only way that it might at some point have actual value is if one of the hundreds of crypto companies out there (most likely Bitcoin or Ethereum) becomes widely accepted as an alternative payment medium. It’s not enough for these vapor “coins” to be considered alternative stores of value, they have to be able to go to the next level by becoming as universally accepted for payment as are official currencies. Only then will these things have any real value.
That's not the problem with crypto. In economic terms, nothing has intrinsic value. Value is purely subjective. It exists only in the minds of individuals.
The only way that it might at some point have actual value is if one of the hundreds of crypto companies out there (most likely Bitcoin or Ethereum) becomes widely accepted as an alternative payment medium.
Here you're on the right track. What's missing for each of the crypto "currencies" is a price system. You can spend bitcoin, but only by converting the value of it into another currency, like the dollar. Nobody puts bitcoin prices on anything.
“The only reason it skyrocketed for a while was because of the irrational herd mentality causing millions of people to keep investing in it because it was “going to the moon.” It was a classic bubble based upon nothing.”
very true, but there’s one more piece to that story, namely that massive wash-trading is what initially sparked the fear of missing out by fraudulently pumping the price of cryptos and indicating that lots and lots of people were buying lots and lots of crypto ... even today, analysis of trading shows that over 50% of trading is STILL wash-trading ...
there’s a reason that wash-trading in traditional securities is flat out illegal ...