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Cryptocurrencies are far from strong right now
After more than a year, the chill of a deep crypto winter has melted. Bitcoin prices have has risen to new heightsventure capital firms are raising funds to invest in cryptocurrency startup, and the gloating crypto brothers are back to mocking skeptics with the words “have fun staying poor.” Once again, people pouring millions of dollars into memecoins featuring dogs in knitted hats or drooling cartoon sloths are being portrayed as the smart money. When the developer of the Sloth Coin, Slerf, he accidentally destroyed $10 million of the funds he had raised from early buyersthe attention only fueled a massive increase in trading volume: $2.7 billion in 24 hours.
This speculative mania is familiar to veterans of the last cryptocurrency boom, 2021 to 2022. Instead of “metaverse,” everyone now just says “AI.” Newness is a veneer of normality, a renewal of reputation. While the average cryptocurrency fan of the last boom spoke in terms of Lamborghinis AND get rich quick schemesthe industry’s new spokespersons are CEOs in suits who focus on regulatory compliance, politicians whose favorite word is “innovation,” and traditional financial institutions who tout cryptocurrencies as a viable way to diversify your portfolio. The problem for the rest of us is that cryptocurrency markets remain riddled with manipulation and scams.