That’s my guess too but the size of the hole (8bn+) makes it hard to imagine it could all be lost in trading, either in a big bang, or gradually for years.
I also don’t understand why there are competing cryptocurrencies? Without governments and borders, shouldn’t one standard currency be enough? (Technical challenges aside)
Some people think it's good to trade some of bitcoin's security for extra features, or at least, think that enough people will feel that way in the future to make these tokens good investments today.
Those people look particularly silly on days like this.
>I also don’t understand why there are competing cryptocurrencies?
A lot of these "competing cryptocurrencies" are just financial instruments, kind of like you could have stock in a company, but you can also trade options and futures of the same underlying stock.
Crypto-currencies have no underlying. A crypto-currency is like a bunch of imaginary confetti. Why is every crypto organisation is issuing its own brand of confetti? It's a legitimate question. It's exactly the same confetti.
One third of FTX fees were used to buy and burn FTT tokens. This is nearly the same as stock buybacks, and makes it a security, i.e. an instrument that derives its value from the success of a business.
> A lot of these "competing cryptocurrencies" are just financial instruments, kind of like you could have stock in a company, but you can also trade options and futures of the same underlying stock.
No they weren't. This comparison has no relation to reality.
Why are there multiple racecar teams? If there is a standard set of rules, why can't there be a standard car that hits the maximum ideal speed around a track, and a standard racer to do it? Or even just automate it?