So while a stock’s intrinsic value can be thought of as the present value of all future cash flows, any sort of intrinsic value for cryptocurrency is more nebulous; it will basically be worth what the supply and demand in the market dictates that it’s worth – which could be a lot, or nothing.
For all those reasons, if you are willing to take the plunge into cryptocurrencies, don’t bet any more than you can afford to lose.
Think of the leading social networks, or Amazon’s e-commerce marketplace: Sellers want to go where the buyers are; buyers want access to the site with the best selection and lower prices.
Tesla bought bitcoin with its own corporate cash back in February to much media buzz, and it initially said it would accept bitcoin payments, only to reverse course in May because of bitcoin’s energy footprint.
Last month, Goldman Sachs published a paper officially naming bitcoin as an investable asset class, reversing its prior position, while also setting up a cryptocurrency trading desk.
Finally, at a conference this past weekend, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador said he would be introducing a bill to the country’s legislature to make bitcoin a legal tender in El Salvador, which would make El Salvador the first country to take that step.
Needless to say, bitcoin appears to be the first digital asset that these institutions are recognizing as a viable asset or currency.
Speaking of Square, its founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey, is a dedicated bitcoin evangelist, to the exclusion of other digital currencies.
That’s because Dorsey sees bitcoin as becoming “the native currency of the internet,” and a way for people in developing countries to protect against their home currency’s potential devaluation.
While many investors and commentators like to highlight some of the innovative properties of new types of coins, bitcoin’s architecture is fairly innovative, too, and also has a robust developer community around it.
Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors.