After more than a decade flying under the radar, cryptocurrencies are finally facing official scrutiny — but why do we never learn? (2024)

And now a word from our sponsor. Or, maybe not.

Sticking your brand on a billboard at one of the world's biggest sporting events doesn't come cheap.

Just ask Crypto.com. It became the official cryptocurrency sponsor to the FIFA World Cup earlier this year in a deal that allegedly cost around $US40 million ($59.25 million)but would deliver the outfit's name into the homes of more than 3 billion soccer fans around the globe.

Unfortunately, things haven't quite gone as smoothly as expected. For a start, Qatar banned cryptocurrencies around fouryears ago, so it is illegal to use or trade in them. Then there's the sticky issue of human rights that have cropped up at the World Cup, prompting calls by some for the group to abandon its publicity push.

Crypto.com has been no slouch on the promotional front. It put its name to the LA Lakers stadium, reportedly for $US700 million ($1.036 billion), signed a $US100 million ($148 million) sponsorship deal with Formula 1, splashed out money on Parisian and Italian soccer teams and even tipped $US25 million ($37 million) into our very own AFL.

A year ago, it recruited actor Matt Damon to front an advertising campaign, Fortune Favours The Brave, which, given the meltdown in cryptocurrencies that began earlier this year, prompted many analysts to tally up just much fortune investors had torched on Crypto.com.

It's also become a lightning rod for satirists. Check this out.

Then there was the embarrassing gaffe a few months back that resulted in the mistaken transfer of 320,000 ether coins to the wrong address.

The darkest cloud looming over the Singapore based crypto exchange, however, is the continued fallout from the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX.

With an estimated shortfall of $US8 billion ($11.85 billion), the collapse of the world's third biggest exchange has left the crypto world reeling amid a crisis of confidence that has seen a mass exit from the strange world of digital currencies.

It has also deflated one of the biggest speculative bubbles in human history, racking up trillions of dollars in losses for millions of unsuspecting investors.

Law enforcement on the crypto case

After 13 years of flying under or around the radar and desperately attempting to avoid regulation, cryptocurrencies suddenly are attracting a great deal of official attention.

And not just from regulators. Law enforcement agencies suddenly have mobilised across the developed world, alarmed at the extent of the losses and the alleged irregular activities of Sam and his co-worker Caroline Ellison who,according to some reports, has been seeking a safe haven in Dubai.

Even Sam's long-time nemesis and one time ally, Binance boss Changpeng Zhao is feeling the heat. Over the weekend, he said he'd stump up $US2 billion to bail out crypto firms caught up in the FTX collapse.

But it was a tweet he sent out about FTX's financial health and his decision to announce he was dumping its coins that sparked the run in the first place. Now, the UK Parliamentary Treasury Committee is demanding an explanation but so far has received evidence it describes as disappointing and unacceptable.

Shortly before the spectacular implosion of FTX, the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried was feted by the financial establishment. In September, Fortune magazine ran a cover photo of him with his unruly mop of hair, posing the question: The Next Warren Buffett?

Then, he was invited to speak at News Corporation's Wall Street Journal technology gabfest at Laguna Beach California even as his empire was unravelling.

It now transpires that Ellison, who previously was romantically linked to Bankman-Fried, allegedly was using client cash to invest in high-risk crypto ventures with little or no oversight.

Who ever said accounting was dull?

For many, the collapse has sparked a war between cryptocurrency true believers and the sceptics. Will it survive? Why this is just a setback. On it goes.

But the argument misses the point.

The blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies is valid. It has widespread applications for business and record keeping.

Ultimately, however, it's just an accounting system. Sophisticated for sure, but a bean-counting system just the same.

What's taken place is that it has been used as a platform to sell dreams of vast wealth to millions of starry-eyed individuals. Rather than create meaningful businesses, the crypto kings have turned it into a vehicle, or rather a multitude of vehicles, for speculation.

Born from an idealistic notion during the depths of the Global Financial Crisis – where the entire financial system teetered on the brink of collapse – it was sold as the future of money, where government and central banks would be banned from manipulating currencies.

Instead of one currency, however, bitcoin spawned a nation. At last count, there were 21,844 cryptocurrencies, 9,314 of them active.

Given the wild fluctuations in their value, they're generally useless for transactions or a store of wealth. They have proved useful for anyone wishing to hide transactions, like money launderers, thieves, and drug dealers.

Mostly, they are used to invest either in themselves or other cryptocurrencies or to convert to old style fiat money. Essentially, it was a dream that turned into a fantasy. And what a fantasy, with estimates that hundreds of millions of individuals globally have involved themselves.

Eventually, even traditional finance couldn't resist the temptation. Venture capital firms threw huge amounts of money at new entrants. Major banks helped facilitate the trade and even pension funds loaded up on them.

Bubbles in overdrive

Bitcoin may be one of the biggest financial bubbles of all time. But it certainly isn't the first.

From tulips in Holland in the 1630s to the Mississippi Co and the South Sea bubble almost a century later to the stock market boom of the 1920, there's a consistent pattern.

Something viable or desirable reaches a point where ordinary greed suddenly turns into mass hysteria and a collective madness grips society.

Ultimately, it always seems to end with a bang and an enormous amount of pain.

Funds manager and former investment banker Mike Mangan makes the startling observation that the bubbles are becoming more frequent, based upon research from Bank of America with data dating back 300 years.

"What is striking is that 75 per cent of the bubbles listed by BofA burst during my career," he notes.

"As each bubble burst, another neatly stepped into its place. If nothing else, that's an historic indictment of our generation in my view."

So why do we not learn, even from recent history? The answer just may lie in the very thing that caused the GFC and brought bitcoin into existence; the belief that we could manipulate the monetary system to override the economic cycle without any side-effects.

For the past half century, each crisis elicited the same response from regulators and central banks; interest rates were slashed. As the long-term interest rate trend headed downwards, we finally found ourselves with rates at zero.

This had the perverse effect of all but eliminating financial risk. That encouraged ever more risky behaviour.

Financial deregulation and unpegging currencies from a value standard brought about enormous advances. They also created a surge in debt and ever more complex debt instruments that could be traded for profit, or losses as we discovered in 2008.

The clock is unlikely to be turned back although rates are likely to begin a long and slow ascent, pricing risk back into decision making.

Perhaps in 20 years' time, if someone in your household digs out repeats of the 2022 World Cup, or the AFL, or the Formula 1 or American basketball, some kid may give you a quizzical look and ask: "What is this crypto stuff?"

Good luck explaining that one.