[spottybanana]

What? I have used BTC for years and never had problem answering that honestly. I would argue the opposite, most BTC users are very straightforward investors, they bought BTC, maybe bought something with it along the years, then held the rest, then when the value went up sold some.

Maybe the ones who have something shady going on are just the noisiest?

[puranjay]

Its become a whole lot more complicated with DeFi. You might have made your profits from yield farming, lending, airdrops, etc.

Its not simply a matter of “bought low, sold high”.

[LatteLazy]

The issue is a buy and hold investor will get $5k and sit on it. Another user sells $5k's worth every month because he's a small drug dealer. That second user is 1000x more revenue for the exchange because he trades every month. But you can't do business with him unless he tells you exactly what he's doing and who he is and gives you evidence he's getting those bitcoin from legitimate sources. Which he is not. So he really can't do any of that...

You get the same thing in most exchanges: a few percent of users are 80% of revenue. And that's true even when there is no "secondary market" which can only make it worse.