Seems like Tether’s questionable activity throws a massive wrench in this analysis. You can’t equate minting to flows if the biggest minter is (allegedly) just printing the things whenever they feel like it
It doesn’t really matter what metrics people use, if the current trend of yearly doubling in users/market cap continues, cryptocurrencies will get to the size of fiat currencies in about 10 years. Of course there are people who are sceptical on _whether_ the current trend continues or not.
I find the disconnect between mainstream "political opinion" and the actions of the big banks more interesting.<p>Lets assume that crypto as a whole is a 50/50 proposition. And it is certainly a giant question mark (50/50 is symbolic)...cause there are certainly open questions.<p>...and yet we've got people on this forum describing it as "funny money" while major investment banks are opening crypto desks. That makes me go hmm...<p>...on balance I'm leaning towards IB usually has a good nose for money and where the political winds will blow (or be made to blow by force)
Money is not flowing "in" or "out" of assets (except when new assets are being created, via a new offering). Every purchase is also a sale, every sale is also a purchase.<p>It's a cognitive error to not understand the above, and it comes from extrapolation of the individual's point of view (when I buy X then my money goes "into" X) to the collective (when the price of X rises it must be because new money has "gone into" the X).
I think the more relevant/interesting question is where is the money flowing into crypto coming from. The data there suggests it’s highly concentrated from folks that really have no business investing in extremely speculative things, which is a huge red flag. Purely anecdotal but my Facebook feed suggests those with a lot of financial literacy are steering clear while folks from high school that barely passed basic math and never left their home town think this is the absolute best place to invest for the future. Just saying.
I haven't read the article but I can easily answer the question: too much, because the value is higher than 0.<p>Crypto should only be an experiment at this point in time. Blockchain is another matter entirely as that's a technology that enables all of this and it has other applications. But crypto is a (very) interesting experiment.<p>The more people realise this and treat crypto as an experiment, the less scams and ruined lives we're going to see.