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If crypto disappeared would anybody actually notice?

The idea that a whole new crypto-based version of the World Wide Web is coming down the track does not hold up in the numbers.

Leonid BershidskyContributor

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Crypto is seemingly everywhere this year. The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies is still above $US2 trillion ($2.8 trillion) despite some recent losses. Last year, people spent more than $US44 billion on non-fungible tokens, or virtual ownership rights on digital objects – an amount that approached the total size of global art and antique sales in 2020. The notion of “Web 3.0” has firmly attached itself to crypto in the past year or so.

Bitcoin does not have enough users to start the next revolution. Getty

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Bloomberg Opinion

Leonid Bershidsky is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation team based in Berlin. He was previously Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist. He recently authored a Russian translation of George Orwell’s 1984.

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    Original URL: https://www.afr.com/markets/currencies/if-crypto-disappeared-would-anybody-actually-notice-20220125-p59qyo