Markets have been difficult to watch for most liquid asset classes in recent weeks, but none have been as painful as cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin's price fell below $27,000 last week, less than half of its November 2021 peak. That's a long way down in a short period of time. Most of the major altcoins have followed a similar trajectory.
Amid this volatility, the chorus of voices critical of cryptocurrencies has increased. Most repeat arguments that view cryptocurrencies as pyramid or Ponzi-like systems that give most of the value to a few founders and early investors.
At the time of writing, the crescendo culminated in the sentiment that cryptocurrencies may be "dead."
That's according to Ross Clark of The Spectator, who argues that despite lower prices for bitcoin and other tokens, there is little evidence that investors are buying the dip en masse. Clark argues that this is the end stage of a pyramid scheme, when there are not enough new investors to form the next layer of the pyramid, and the system collapses in on itself.
Authors like Clark point out that bitcoin doesn't really serve as a hedge against inflation or stocks, as some had expected, and question the value of cryptocurrencies as investments themselves.
Oh yeah, it also doesn't help that last weekend the Justice Department indicted the CEO of Mining Capital Coin, a crypto mining and investment platform, for allegedly operating a $62 million Ponzi scheme.
Volatility is a trait, not a bug
We talk a lot in the crypto press about the merits and potential of cryptocurrencies, but clients will hear and read these things, and they will turn to advisors to help them stay the course. If advisors believe in cryptocurrencies, then they need to be prepared to explain to their clients that they should stay invested in them for the long term.
Ultimately, volatility is a feature, not a bug, of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency with the longest track record and the largest investor participation, has experienced such a crash several times throughout its history.
Cryptocurrencies may be closely correlated with tech stocks at times, but the asset classes have converged and decoupled in the past, according to David Gamble, portfolio manager at Sarson Funds, a crypto education and investment platform for financial advisors.
Gamble believes cryptocurrencies will eventually decouple from equities as a new wave of adoption driven by state actors takes hold. Two countries, El Salvador and the Central African Republic, have already adopted bitcoin as legal tender, and Gamble expects more countries to follow.
"However, good things take time, and we will need to see more of this adoption curve," he said. "Fundamentally, we see the right things happening."
Another bright spot is regulation, where there seems to be some movement in the U.S. toward clarity and consensus building on the treatment of cryptocurrencies - the president's executive order kicked off a coordinated federal review of cryptocurrencies and the digital asset ecosystem.
Where do we go from here?
For now, regulators in the U.S. seem to be taking a more soft approach.
"People have been very cautious about what might be coming, especially with the debate over the possibility of self-custody," said Stan Miroshink, partner and co-founder of 10T Holdings, a growth-stage private equity firm focused on the digital asset space. "The recent Executive Order was not only benevolent, but also prescient in pushing for a thoughtful regulatory framework."
Progress is being made toward more efficient cryptocurrency products, such as a spot bitcoin ETF that will be made available on more marketplaces.
Ultimately, these products will be key to attracting new crypto investors, said Andrew Puschel, global head of strategy at HashDex, which has created a number of exchange-traded crypto products, including spot-price ETFs based in Brazil.
"I wouldn't say the SEC is there yet, but it's gradually getting closer," Puschel said. "There's been a lot of demand served by private placement products, direct ownership and other things, but ultimately from a compliance standpoint, advisors and investors want to own an entire portfolio on one platform - all assets should be in the same place, and that's one thing ETFs can provide."
And overall, investment in cryptocurrencies and digital assets continues to grow as companies develop and offer more ways to access the space.
Coinbase, which recently announced that it has reached 89 million verified users, now predicts that there will be 1 billion active cryptocurrency users by 2032. By 2021, there will be an estimated 295 million users - so there's still plenty of growth within the networks driving cryptocurrencies to look forward to.
"It's clear that crypto has arrived and we can no longer afford to ignore crypto," said Ben Cruikshank, founder of Flourish, a crypto platform for advisors. "Twenty-five percent of U.S. investors are now investing in crypto - that's the same number that are investing in CDs. There's no way to avoid it."