Cryptocurrencies are by and large speculative financial assets

Since Bitcoin hit an all-time high in November, the value of the world's most popular digital currency has fallen by about 70%, Ether is down by around 70% this year, and so is Dogecoin.

Bitcoin's backers have always claimed the digital currency would be an "inflation hedge," but it hasn't behaved that way. Instead, this crash in crypto prices shows that cryptocurrencies are primarily speculative financial assets subject to macroeconomic forces.