Slightly off-topic, but in case anyone is wondering why crypto is foundering, consider that it is almost impossible to convert fiat to/from crypto.
I don't think that's a bad thing actually. In fact I'd be worried if it wasn't damn near impossible by now to convert fiat to crypto.
It indicates how absolutely scared sh*tless the central powers that be are of private currencies - and always have been for that matter.
The difference with crypto is that there's dick-all they can do about them except try to plug as many holes in the leaking fiat seive as they can while appearing to be "constructive and enthusiastic". Are they hell - they know it's hot lava to candle wax to let anything like cryptocurrency near the over-levered fiat banking system.
I don't think people realise how flaky and top-heavy the world financial system is now. Once Bretton Woods was kicked out the door and the 1990's derivatives mountain allowed to balloon to kingdom come there was no going back. The only thing keeping it pumped is the fact that it is so increidibly centralised with about 5 central banks keeping a beachball balanced on a pinhead in a co-ordinated manner.
The thing is, nothing can afford to go wrong. Confidence is everything when you've got a debt mountain backing everything. One major sovereign default and your primary capital layer turns from concrete to sponge cake and the last thing they need is new forms of base money turning up on the scene that they haven't got control of at a time like that.
According to Jim Willie, the main reason for the dollar's ballooning in value is the liquification of dollar denominated derivatives - i.e. people actually getting out of the dollar and into something else (like the new Russia-China gold backed world reserve). In the meantime they've got to transit through cash which is creating the demand pressure on the dollar which in turn devalues the commodity market (oil etc).
Meanwhile the Chinese and Japanese are getting ready (according to him) to revalue the gold market and call the western blank's bluff on the integrity of their physical reserves.
I don't know whats going to happen or when, but I feel in my bones that the emergence of cryptocurrency and the demise of the state-backed financial system are somehow exquisitely synchronised by universal forces beyond our comprehension to propel us into paradise
(Just a thought
)