[BrazeBeefNoodle]

>> For every big winner, there's some family who had a dad who mortgaged their house and lost it all.

That's silly. Just look at the growth in the total crypto market cap over the last few years (or even over the last six months) and it's clear that this can't be true.

The vast majority of people who have been involved are way ahead.

[adbachman]

> The vast majority of people who have been involved are way ahead.

Strong disagree :(

Cryptocurrency investment is speculation in a zero-sum game. Every dollar someone pulls out of the system in profit required someone else to put a dollar in. All those people who sold bitcoin at $19k could do so because there were buyers. Every single one of those buyers lost.

Cryptocurrencies are not shares in a corporation or bonds or any sort of interest or dividend producing financial instrument. Even the ICOs that claim to be so only work when new money is coming in. To get a (real) dollar out of the system, someone else has to put a dollar in. To get more money out of the system than you put in, someone else has to pay. For that person to get more money out, more people have to come in after them and pay. The top of the pyramid gets paid, the bottom is left holding the bag.

The only growth in market cap is new money flowing into the system. Once enough decides to flow out, the gig is up and the whole thing tanks.

[specialist]

I'm stuck on the revelation that the stock markets high valuations was driven by cartel money needing a place to park.

I now assume every bubble serves a similar purpose.

Knowing that, a person smarter and braver than me could be skimming off some of those narco dollars.

[greyman]

> All those people who sold bitcoin at $19k could do so because there were buyers. Every single one of those buyers lost.

Only if they sold. Otherwise they might just wait until the price climbs back.

[adbachman]

The price still doesn't change unless new money enters, though.

[dustingetz]

great comment BUT real world finance works like that too except USA keeps its currency in demand by forcing international trade especially oil to be settled in USD and invading countries who resist. Macro voices podcast went into that in super depth https://www.macrovoices.com/podcast-transcripts/341-anatomy-...

[tim333]

That's assuming the coins have no ongoing value which may not be the case.

[wmf]

People are way ahead on paper, but for them to realize their gains would require a whole lot of other people to buy in. When we look back ten years from now it's possible that only a minority of people will have profited.

[specialist]

I now wonder if there are any surveys of first mover advantage in pyramid schemes, ponzi schemes, bubbles.

SOME ONE made one a fortune during the tulip mania. Right?