Is crypto now inevitable?
Bitcoin has drawn mainstream financial interest, but will it establish itself as a legitimate asset class, asks Billy Bambrough.
The trouble with cryptocurrency is that so much of the space instinctively feels like a fraud- like a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme. Crypto can seem like a mirage that will disappear as quickly as it snapped into virtual existence just over a decade ago. But the fast-growing crypto market is now worth over $2 trillion and bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency whose distributed ledger blockchain technology popularized the idea of internet-based digital currencies, is being held by Wall Street’s biggest banks on behalf of clients and some companies themselves, including Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla.
Bitcoin’s eye-popping 500% surge over the last six months is dwarfed by the rallies seen among smaller and niche cryptocurrencies, not to mention joke, meme-based tokens like dogecoin.
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