Does civilisation need UnfunnyNotMoney cryptocurrencies?
Buying and selling in the hope of making a quick profit is fundamentally different from setting money aside to build a long-term nest egg
One reassuring aspect of the rollercoaster ride that saw bitcoin lose half its value in less than two months is the immunity of the real financial world to contagion from crypto-tokens, which I increasingly think of as UnfunnyNotMoney. But there is a danger that speculators, particularly if they’re young and inexperienced, have a once bitten, twice shy reaction to losses that could harm their propensity to allocate cash to long-term savings.
The gamification of finance is a worrying trend, and it’s not just restricted to buying and HODLing [holding on for dear life] digital currencies. The FOMO/YOLO crowd has also embraced equities, as we saw earlier this year with the rise and fall (and rise again) of GameStop and other Robinhood Markets favourites that caught the attention of Redditors...
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