Bitcoin does have a source of value: money laundering. That could be enough to prop up the value as new crime generates new dirty money which ensures new demand

Bitcoin does have a source of value: money laundering. That could be enough to prop up the value as new crime generates new dirty money which ensures new demand (you can include "evading capital controls" as "crime" but that won't generate dollars). That would peg the value of bitcoin with the general "dark economy", making bitcoin sort of Stripe-for-crime. The speculative and tech aspects of it provide enough of a veneer to keep authorities from entirely cracking down (though banks really really don't like touching it!). I dunno how long that can go on, it seems like eventually someone will start making stricter KYC rules and the whole thing will come tumbling down. The feds are currently sniffing around Tether, which might be the start. That or the bitcoin system invents another part of traditional finanical systems, the bank run (tether is already backed by loans and crypto neither of which will assuage depositors looking for dollars).