Crypto addiction: a hidden epidemic?

Danzico, a designer and visual artist, used projections to capture how crypto trading was taking over his life

When Matt Danzico began seeing cryptocurrency logos in the packaging of grocery store items, he knew he had a problem. 

Danzico had been swept up in the global craze for trading digital currencies during the pandemic, and very quickly it had grown into an obsession. 

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum are notorious for their volatility, and the 39-year-old saw "years worth of money won and lost in a very short amount of time".

Danzico declines to specify the damage the experiment did to his finances -- suffice to say that "for our bank account, it was bad".

But as cryptocurrencies have grown from being a niche interest to a more mainstream one, Danzico says experiences much darker than his own are unfolding worldwide.

"If one small fraction of those people are becoming hooked, we're talking about a burgeoning potential mental health crisis on a scale that I don't think that the world has ever seen."

Danzico points out that you need look no further than Twitter, where crypto enthusiasts congregate, for a sense of the mental health consequences of the tokens' chronic instability. 

In September, a Czech man's tale of his disastrous attempt to get rich from crypto -- taking on spiraling debts as he attempted to claw back his losses -- went viral on Twitter.

Disturbed by his own experience and others described online, Danzico began researching crypto addiction, writing up his findings in an article for crypto news site Cointelegraph. 

Experts regard the phenomenon as a form of gambling addiction, noting similarities with Wall Street traders whose investments have spun out of control.

The problem is more common in men, the clinic notes on its website, "but this might just be because women trade cryptocurrencies less than men".

For Danzico, it's "alarming" that more specialised help isn't available. Part of the problem, he suspects, is that people don't realise quite how mainstream crypto speculation has become. 

It was only after Danzico began trading himself that he began noticing signs that fellow traders were everywhere.

Danzico kicked his own habit by pouring his obsession into photography, using a light projector to superimpose images of crypto logos and charts onto the world around him.

He is now, with self-confessed irony, selling digital versions of the images as NFTs -- non-fungible tokens, for which he is paid in ethereum.

"You have kids who are literally becoming millionaires in their parents' basements and then losing it all before they run up for dinner," he said.

kjl/dl

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