The nascent cryptocurrency economy experienced a deflationary crash due to the hyperdeflation baked into the protocol. The currency became useless as such and w

The nascent cryptocurrency economy experienced a deflationary crash due to the hyperdeflation baked into the protocol. The currency became useless as such and was mostly abandoned, and then the shell of it was picked up by scammers who are now using it to run a Ponzi scheme. I’d put that deflationary crash right at the point you mention. I remember it. Bitcoin ran up to crazy levels in 2017 while it was simultaneously abandoned, which is what a deflationary currency collapse looks like. Bitcoin’s designer(s) were brilliant cryptographers but crank economists. There’s a reason nobody takes that kind of superficial pop Austrianism seriously. It would be possible to design a viable cryptocurrency but it won’t happen until the current crop of cranks and scammers goes away. Right now anything actually workable in the space is tainted by the nonsense.