Bitcoin’s price really was in a bubble, and the bubble popped
whatever the reason (hack, state crack-down, market manipulation).
How bad would that be? And how would it play out?
“It will be like 2000, when the tech bubble popped,” says Garrick Hileman, who researches monetary systems at the University of Cambridge.
“The largest and strongest players, the Amazons of the crypto world, will consolidate and propel themselves further ahead. But a lot of bitcoin companies – exchanges, wallet companies, etcetera – will go out of business.”
Bitcoin itself will go back where it was born, among libertarians, crypto-enthusiasts, and darknet spelunkers. Or might be dethroned by another cryptocurrency, one less tainted by bubbly memories, and end up in digital purgatory.
