The degree to which crypto exchanges mimic wildcat banks of the nineteenth century is striking. They are basically unregulated "banks" issuing and manipulatin

The degree to which crypto exchanges mimic wildcat banks of the nineteenth century is striking. They are basically unregulated "banks" issuing and manipulating proprietary currencies against real, central-bank regulated, national currencies. The biggest difference is that people used wildcat currencies due to scarcity of national currencies, and regulated banking institutions, whereas they participate in crypto exchanges purely to speculate, hoping to strike some great return on their money.