To the moon? Five microeconomic lessons from Bitcoin

Countless other cryptocurrencies have entered the market. While it remains the dominant coin, Bitcoin's market share has fallen from 94 percent in 2013 to 64 percent in March 2020. Other major cryptocurrencies have different uses, but they often do overlap with the possible uses of Bitcoin.

Overall, Bitcoin benefits from network effects: it becomes more valuable as more people use it. Bitcoin still remains the foundation of much of the crypto market, which moves in tandem with it. 

One of the more popular uses of Bitcoin is as a gold-like store of value over the long-run. Claims that Bitcoin may someday be valued as high as $100,000 per coin are based on this idea of the coin as "digital gold."  

However, a number of studies have suggested that Bitcoin is a rather poor store of value, being subject to a fair amount of speculation and volatility and lacking the insurance other commodities have against theft or system failure.

While Bitcoin is still subject to swings that would be eye-popping in other markets, this is an asset that does not behave quite like other, more traditional ones. As a result, the volatility of its price, which has dropped over the last few years, may not be a sign of the impending collapse of the coin's value but rather a feature of digital currencies.

Or, it may be something else entirely. It is still too new to even find much agreement on how to study the stuff