[gamblor956]

Theranos had a high market cap to, right up until the WSJ reporting revealed it to be a fraud. And on that note, there's strong evidence that multiple parties have been manipulating the value of cryptocurrencies, including especially Bitcoin, through various fraudulent mechanisms (see, e.g., Tether).

I also used to be heavily involved in cryptocurrency, when it first started, and what I saw then is a large part of why I don't see any usefulness in cryptocurrency now and why I'm convinced that it will never replace any part of the financial system.

[seibelj]

You truly believe that some scandal will result that drives Bitcoin from $240 billion to 0? And you were "heavily involved when it first started"? A lot has changed in 10 years, I don't think you understand this industry whatsoever.

[gamblor956]

I don't think a scandal will drive Bitcoin from $240 billion to 0. There's enough interest that Bitcoin will retain at least some value even when it's clear that it will never be picked up for general use.

A lot has changed in 10 years. Crypto has gotten worse. Multiple exchanges were hacked, or turned out to be entirely fraudulent. Black markets came and went. ICOs for non-existent and useless products. The discovery that major participants in the system were manipulating coin values and were engaged in multiple types of financial fraud. The uptake of cryptocurrency as the primary means of paying ransoms to hackers who have encrypted your website, database, or computer. Facebook attempting to introduce its own cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin Craze where awareness of bitcoin hit the general public and the techies who got in first exploited the rubes for everything they were worth(and cryptocurrency industry's response to the criticism: they should have known better!?!? That tarnished all cryptocurrency in the eyes of the public and they learned to avoid all of it, not just Bitcoin. That on its own was a fatal blow to the uptake of cryptocurrency in general use, anywhere, and it was only a few months later that Bitcoin started getting removed from e-commerce sites).

All in all, I'm glad I got out when I did.