“BUY BTC.” The logo stamped on this week’s leaked version of the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer, depicting a faux glamorous world of speedboats, supercars and “shoot-em-ups,” was well timed. Bitcoin’s price has almost tripled this year to around $42,000, where it was before the 2022 Terra debacle. Frothy six- to seven-figure price targets are back. With Coinbase Global Inc.’s boss touting Bitcoin as “key” to the West’s future and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele demanding his critics apologize, you’d think an actual use case had been found.
Except — it hasn’t. And at the risk of sounding like the Simpsons’ “Old Man Yells At Cloud,” there are plenty of reasons to be cautious about this umpteenth upward swing on the crypto rollercoaster ride at a time of economic slowdown and possible recession.
