Conceptually, there's nothing that makes cryptocurrencies a scam. In practice, however, many cryptocurrency uses, and indeed many cryptocurrencies themselves,

Conceptually, there's nothing that makes cryptocurrencies a scam. In practice, however, many cryptocurrency uses, and indeed many cryptocurrencies themselves, are scams. Given the difficulty of identifying actors in the market, the complexity of analyzing the risks, the limited regulatory oversight, the cross-jurisdictional nature of the market, and the general frothiness, hype and FOMO around cryptocurrencies, it's inevitable that it will attract scammers and the scammed. A simple perusal of its history makes this clear, but the lure of high returns continues to provide a stream of greater fools.