RE:RE:Dirt Cheap 12-13-2024Cryptos are really a wild west environment speculation at this point. There are literally thousands of them out there on the market. Yes, etherium and bitcoin have risent to the top in terms of popularity, however, my bet would be that XRP will stand atop the heap when it is all said and done.
Cryptos remind me of the tulip bulb mania we read about in the 17th century. I am sure many investors invested just because the prices kept going up and up.....until they didn't and the whole thing crashed and burned.
I am reminded of what Buffett once said about not investing in something you don't really understand. The dirty little secret about cryptos is that most people don't know what they are yet the "investors" don't seem to care (sounds like a mania, no?).
What are cryptos? In terms of "investing" I would equate them to collectibles. Many consider them "currency". They definitely are not stocks or bonds. The bitcoin bulls tend to think of bitcoin as "digital gold" because you have to "mine" them into existence and they are rare and supposedly desirable. Bitcoin does have certain similar aspect to gold in terms of being money/currency., however, due to the wild fluctuation in price no serious observer of bitcoin would dare call it a legitimate store of value which is a hallmark of any legitimate currency.
Stepping outside of the world of investiing, if you ask me, cryptos are effectively concepts. The coincept being an alternate conduit to transact business outside of the fiat currencies that currently dominate today's world. They are sort of a new-age style digital medium of exchange (think the vehicle to transmit or send gold, but NOT the actual gold itself).
In the end, my projection is that the few cryptos that are left after the dust settles will have to be backed by gold in order to give them legitimacy and mainstream acceptance. Gold is old fashioned in the sense that nobody carries around gold coins to transact commerce and crypto is technologically the wave of the future, yet it lacks the intrinsic value of actual money (gold). Marry the intrinsic value of gold with the flashy tech of crypto and gold bulls and crypto bulls will be in the same camp (as will the rest of the populace who is against fiat currencies and central banks).
Anyways, my ramblings about crypto are over. For the record I will take a position in crypto once XRP is approved for an ETF. Until then, cryptos are an interesting spectacle to watch from afar. One shouldn't worry about missing out on the bitcoin craze, that ship has already sailed and the pendulum has swung way to the side of risk instead of reward at this point: caveat emptor!!