How a creepy cryptocurrency email left me stunned

Young adults are finding it tougher to buy real estate amid soaring prices, but is bitcoin the best alternative?

A chill ran down my spine when a media release email landed in my inbox a few days ago.

It was about cryptocurrency, which alone doesn’t make it scary because I get about a dozen of those daily.

But the headline on the email read: Why buy property when you can buy crypto?

Yikes! I hadn’t cringed so much since I saw an evil clown’s head turn into a spider when my kids dragged me to a horror movie a few years ago.

Comparing crypto with property just shouldn’t be done.

For starters, property is known as real estate because it’s something real that you can touch, or live in. Cryptocurrency is created from thin air using computers, and each year thousands of new cryptos are launching – also created from thin air.

Property has been rising in value for decades, albeit with price pullbacks every five or 10 years that are rarely worse than 10 or 15 per cent. Most cryptocurrencies didn’t exist a decade ago, and the biggest – bitcoin – has doubled then halved in value twice in less than 18 months.

I don’t dislike crypto, and bought some myself last year. It was a speculative gamble rather than a serious decades-long investment, and I don’t believe crypto can match property as an asset, investment and vital part of people’s lives.

Now back to the email that freaked me out.

Crypto may be exciting for young adults but it should never replace property as an asset. Picture: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

The rest of the message wasn’t that scary – mainly just a plug for a cryptocurrency hedge fund – but one other line in it was worrying: declaring that digital investments such as crypto give investors “the luxury of liquidity which can’t be found in property investing”.

Of course, you can’t sell a piece of a single house like you can with crypto, a bank account or share portfolio. But you also won’t see your real estate halve in value in just a few months.

I don’t plan to sell my crypto – I’d hate to miss out if bitcoin begins another crazy run higher as it did a couple of years ago. But I’m not certain that this will happen.

All the benefits that bitcoin and friends were meant to bring don’t seem to be materialising yet.

They were supposed to replace traditional money as a transaction tool, but today only a handful of businesses accept them and few consumers use them like cash.

Bitcoin was also described as “digital gold” – an asset to protect investors during times of high inflation, like real gold has been used for centuries.

However, inflation has been surging in the US – up 8.5 per cent annually – and crypto’s market value dropped 13 per cent in the same period, according to analysts at FxPro.

Crypto is the currency for buying non fungible tokens – digital assets including artworks, videos and in-game items that will become more valuable as the Metaverse develops.

The Metaverse? That’s the virtual world of the future in which we can all exist inside, and Facebook liked the concept so much it recently changed its name to Meta.

Personally, I can’t find enough time to enjoy the real world, let alone a virtual world without real sunshine on skin, fresh wind in your face, and the sounds and smells of nature.

I believe this makes me old-fashioned, but what else can you expect from a bloke scared by a media release?