I saw recently in the Wall Street Journal that a lot of cash is being invested in start-up companies, which will use the money to buy bitcoin and other crypto currencies.
This is a market bet on rising prices – i.e. future demand from as yet unknown consumers for crypto as an asset they want to own.
Here is the chart:
I found with a Google inquiry that:
- There are 17,134 total cryptocurrencies.
- The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies is $1.32 trillion.
- The trading volume of all cryptocurrencies, per 24 hours, is currently $172 billion.
- Bitcoin has the highest current market cap at approximately $650 billion – around 3x its closest rival, Ethereum.
The crypto market cap has been rising impressively:
But there was once a market mania for tulip bulbs in Holland:
And then there was the South Sea Bubble in the London Stock market in which Sir Isaac Newton lost his fortune:
And there was once an enthusiastic buying of stocks on Wall Street:
And within living memory, sub-prime mortgages soaked up a lot of money to be sold to willing buyers:
So, perhaps the best lesson to learn from history is to have caution about the quality of judgment which buyers have when money markets look most appetizing.
When something looks too good to be true, most likely it will not be worth the money in the long run. But is that capitalism systemically creating wealth or just imperfect human nature at work when dazzled by the prospect of making easy money?