Is crypto really just another ‘bubble’?

• Published date: 15 April 2024
• Author: Diana Clement Columnist Diana Clement is a freelance journalist who writes on personal finance and property investing
• Publication title: Bush Telegraph

Traders crowing about their profits went silent, almost overnight

The price of Bitcoin slowly recovered through 2023 and then soared after United States regulators approved the formation of crypto exchange traded funds [ETFs].

The world’s largest fund managers, such as BlackRock, immediately began buying vast quantities of the digital currency, driving the price through the roof.

I turned on 1News around the beginning of March to see an article in prime time about Bitcoin hitting record highs.

“Gulp” was a polite translation of my words.

Making the TV news meant that first-time investors with FOMO (fear of missing out) are about to pile in.

Bitcoin, the most popular gauge of the markets, rose by 160 per cent from October last year to the final week in March and a new get-rich-quick cohort was emerging.

“By the time everyone knows the story, it is usually past its use-by date, and the smart money is already getting out; cutting and running,” I’d just read in my colleague Liam Dann’s new book, BBQ Economics.

Whether it was 1929, 1987, 2008 — the same story repeats.

Days after the TV1 news item, someone started telling me about all the money his son had made in crypto and how he seemed to be very good at it.

I raised an eyebrow because even a monkey throwing darts at a chart would have made a profit on Bitcoin over the past year.

When the market gets “frothy” and FOMO abounds, that’s when crypto investor and lawyer James Cochrane takes a breather.

Cochrane, a partner in Web3 & Digital Assets at law firm Lane...