The New York Times reported that “In 2017, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin went from $830 to $19,300, and now quivers around $14,000. Ether, its main rival, started the year at less than $10, closing out 2017 at $715. Now it’s over $1,100.” The January 13, 2018 story entitled “Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You’re Not” portrayed stories of many successful bitcoin investors but cautioned that this may be like the time before the dom.com world exploded in the late 1990’s:
The wealth is intoxicating news, feverish because it seems so random. Investors trying to grok the landscape compare it to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, when valuations soared and it was hard to separate the Amazons and Googles from the Pets.coms and eToys.
Another interesting part of the story was that:
The goal may be decentralization, but the money is extremely concentrated. Coinbase has more than 13 million accounts that own cryptocurrencies. Data suggests that about 94 percent of the Bitcoin wealth is held by men, and some estimate that 95 percent of the wealth is held by 4 percent of the owners.
Will the bitcoin burst and change these wealthy investors?