How Bitcoin Is Edging Toward the Financial Mainstream: QuickTake
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have become a global obsession, inspiring their own counterculture and attracting millions of converts. Once seen as the province of nerds, libertarians and drug dealers, Bitcoin and its less famous cousins have been embraced by rock-star investors and propelled by a belief that digital money is shaking up the financial world. Yet even after Bitcoin’s price exploded during the pandemic, it’s still on a roller-coaster ride, and there are few signs that cryptocurrencies will evolve into a useful way to pay for most transactions.
By going up and up (with some major downs along the way), even in the face of skepticism from much of the financial establishment. In April, Bitcoin climbed to almost $65,000 before taking another tumble. Even after that crash, anyone who had bought it before November at least doubled their money, and probably much more. Its rise dwarfs all other boom cycles in financial assets over the past 50 years and pushed the theoretical market value of all cryptocurrencies — including Ether, Tether and other much smaller so-called tokens or coins — to as much as $2 trillion. Still, crypto investing remains risky and volatile, subject to evolving regulation and the whims of a fickle market dominated by a small number of anonymous investors.