If they routinely pay more than their utility value, it's a good indication that the asset is in a bubble, and therefore not a good investment in the long term.

If they routinely pay more than their utility value, it's a good indication that the asset is in a bubble, and therefore not a good investment in the long term. Most assets are not in a bubble. In fact, they can't all be in a bubble. If some assets are overpriced, then other assets must be underpriced. Stocks don't have scrap value because they're a financial derivative, whereas we were talking specifically about physical assets. A stock is a claim on a company's equity, and the company equity is defined as assets minus liabilities. Obviously if assets < liabilities, then equity is negative, but that doesn't contradict the assertion that physical objects have scrap value, which was my claim. Bitcoin is not a derivative, because it has no underlying. It's not a commodity either, because it doesn't exist. It's an imaginary asset, like fiat money. But unlike fiat, Bitcoin doesn't work as money, so it really has no use-case other than be used as a speculative asset. It's a bubble asset.