Over the past 4 years, the cryptocurrency market has come a long way: the number of users has grown from 25 million to 100 million people, according to research by the University of Cambridge. This is a little less than 2% of the world's population, which indicates the promising prospects for cryptocurrencies; most countries of the world, to one degree or another, recognized cryptocurrencies and created laws regulating the digital industry, introduced taxation; leading economic powers create and prepare for the release of state cryptocurrencies (CBDC - Central Bank Digital Currency); investment funds and companies such as Grayscale, MicroStrategy and even Elon Musk's Tesla began to invest billions in cryptocurrencies; the world's largest investment funds, such as Fidelity Investments and BlackRock, which together manage more than $13 trillion, are also seriously thinking about investing in cryptocurrencies; the largest banks create special funds and platforms for investing in cryptocurrencies; futures and options for bitcoin trading are added to the world's leading exchanges. Unlike in 2017, today, Bitcoin is no longer considered a pyramid scheme or a toy, but rather a serious asset that has found its way into the portfolios of investors, whether ordinary citizens or billionaires. What is the use of bitcoin? One of the main reasons for the popularity of Bitcoin in 2020/21 was the COVID-19 pandemic. The collapse of the global economy as a result of quarantine measures forced the world's leading central banks to take unprecedented measures to rescue and support the economy by issuing trillions of dollars of unsecured money. Of course, this is reflected in the US dollar, which is depreciating against the world's leading currencies. Zero interest rates attract people to borrow more often, make deposits unprofitable, as well as invest in bonds, whose yield is almost zero. The only source of profit was the so-called risky assets: stock markets and cryptocurrencies. Stock markets, like cryptocurrencies, have provided investors with high returns, but if company shares are used as an investment asset, then bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also used as a deflationary asset, which helps protect capital from depreciation.
