Only reason to buy cryptocurrencies is the price, and if the price falls, then that reason gets weaker

Something called Luna, which is (was?) apparently a cryptocurrency, fell by 99.98% in about a week’s time. Actually, the arithmetic of the fall was tremendously entertaining as well as educational. It fell 96.7% over four days and then fell another 99.3% over the next two days. Presumably, the currency’s full name is ‘lunatic’ and it’s named after people who invested in it. If stories in the media are to be believed, there were many Indians who had invested in this thing. If your holding was worth Rs.1 lakh on 5 May, then you might still be able to buy a samosa with it, provided you don’t go to an expensive place.

As I’m writing this page, I can hear TV anchors screaming about the staggering losses. However, I don’t think these losses are staggering at all. In fact, they are not even mildly surprising—they are exactly what one should have expected from this crypto nonsense. This is just one so-called currency— such things will be routine across the entire crypto wasteland in the days and weeks to come.

The best comment I read on social media about crypto was this: Sick of people calling everything in crypto a Ponzi scheme. Some crypto projects are pump and dump schemes, while others are pyramid schemes. Others are just standard issue fraud. Others are just middlemen skimming off the top. Stop glossing over the diversity in the industry. However, I don’t actually intend to write about this thing today—there’s nothing new in it and there is no…