For most people, cryptocurrency has been something to stay away from. Will investors finally adopt this philosophy?

Cryptocurrencies, especially the big sellers, have been known to fluctuate and change price drastically. Late last year, Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies, such as Etherium, peaked in value. This seemed promising for long time investors, especially those with Bitcoin, which peaked at almost $70k. It was at this point in which value for many popular cryptocurrencies plummeted. Bitcoin dropped from $67k to $36k (a 53% decrease) and caused the destruction of $1.35 trillion across the globe. This caused panic for a majority of investors. Most of those who are still willing to keep their Bitcoin either really truly believe in the currency or they can afford to lose what they put into it. Because of this loss in trillions of dollars, the U.S. Government has been putting together rules and regulations to prevent such a big loss from happening again. This can also advance cryptocurrency into becoming a legitimate form of payment.

As investors and traders worked to bring the value of crypto back up, things seemed promising for all of those involved. Values were rising and profits were growing. All was going well until Russia invaded Ukraine. The invasion has caused a lot of  fluctuation and uncertainty in global markets. This crash resulted in the disappearance of $500 billion. The whole point of Bitcoin is to be a stable currency for disaster situations but during the invasion of a country, the value of that currency plummets. That destroys the integrity and the reliability of cryptocurrency and further reinforces to the average citizen that the idea that investing in it is a bad idea. There needs to be more regulation and safer practices for the buying, selling, and trading of crypto so their value stabilizes and stays higher. Only time will tell how effective this tactic will be, seeing how unstable and unpredictable crypto can be.

This problem isn’t big for about 84% of American people (Pew Research), but for those trying to make crypto a reliable and official currency, this is a major roadblock. There is a chance that this money may never be made back completely and it also destroyed the faith of surface level investors, as well as those already opposed to crypto. Personally, I don’t think that the world is ready for crypto with fluctuating economies and soaring inflation. Once the global economy stabilizes, though, I think that will be a good opportunity to re-introduce the idea to the world.