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Ranks of Crypto Users Swelled in 2018 Even as Bitcoin Tumbled (bloomberg.com)
It turns out that cryptocurrency enthusiasts were committed well beyond the HODL rallying call that urged them to hold on during this year's digital-asset market collapse. From a report: The number of verified users of cryptocurrencies almost doubled in the first three quarters of the year even as the market bellwether Bitcoin tumbled almost 80 percent, according to a study from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Users climbed from 18 million to 35 million this year. The figures may provide a silver lining. If user numbers continue to increase even in a deep market downturn, that could signal that an eventual recovery could be coming -- a crucial finding at a time when some critics predict that the value of cryptocurrencies will go down to zero.
Bitcoin especially, will always have a base of users - because there is no alternative that offers the same features (well other than other digital currencies), not even cash (and cash is in theory less universal, though the dollar comes closest to working everywhere).
Sometimes I wonder if anti-Bitcoin propaganda and manipulation may not be some kind of U.S. intervention, to keep the value of the dollar propped up since it's used around most of the world as a supported currency.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley