Crypto’s 80% plunge is worse than dotcom crash

CRYPTO INDUSTRY’S LINKS WITH THE TRADITIONAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM REMAIN WEAK, A DISAPPOINTMENT FOR THE BULLS

big on a seemingly revolutionary technology are suffering a painful reality check, particularly those in many secondary tokens, so-called alt-coins.

“It just shows what a massive, speculative bubble the whole crypto thing was—as many of us at the time warned,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst in London for Markets.com, a foreign-exchange trading platform. “It’s a very likely a winner takes all market—bitcoin currently most likely.”

Wednesday’s losses were led by Ether, the second-largest virtual currency. It fell 6% to $171.15 at 7.50am in New York, extending this month’s retreat to 40%. Bitcoin was little changed, while the MVIS Cryptocompare index fell 3.8%. The value of all virtual currencies tracked by Coinmarketcap.com sank to $187 billion, a 10-month low.

The virtual-currency mania of 2017—fuelled by hopes that Bitcoin would become “digital gold” and that blockchainpowered tokens would reshape industries from finance to food —has quickly given way to concerns about excessive hype, security flaws, market manipulation, tighter regulation and slower-than-anticipated adoption by Wall Street.

Crypto bulls dismiss negative comparisons to the dotcom era by pointing to the Nasdaq Composite’s recovery to fresh highs 15 years later, and to the internet’s enormous impact on society. They also note that Bitcoin has rebounded from past crashes of similar magnitude.

But even if the optimists prove right and cryptocurrencies eventually transform the world, this year’s sell-off has underscored that progress is unlikely to be smooth.

One silver lining of the crypto slump is that ramifications for the global economy are likely to be minimal. While the market has lost more than $640 billion of value since peaking in January, that’s a far cry from the trillions erased from Nasdaq Composite stocks during the dot-com bust.

The crypto industry’s links with the traditional financial system also remain weak. That’s been a disappointment for bulls, but it’s good news for everyone else at a time when digital assets are tumbling. “Until you can pay your taxes in cryptos, it’s just a pointless investment vehicle,” said Markets.com’s Wilson.