If you're here to say crypto is fake and gay, or a honeypot, please restrict yourself to commenting to the theory at hand. I wouldn't start talking about Moby Dick if the book club was reading Ivanhoe, ya dig?

Background: Crypto is one of the biggest expansion of the money supply in history. It actually rivals the fed making the money printer go brrrr. QE 1-3 totaled about $8 trillion.

Total cryptocurrency market cap - $2.3 trillion in 2021. This is up from about $20 million in 2017. So, crypto is akin at least to QE1. Moreover, it keeps going upward, bubbles none-withstanding.

Thesis: Part of the reason that crypto is being accepted by major financial institutions (debate the honeypot aspect elsewhere, I acknowledge it), and western governments are no longer trying to shut it down, but instead regulate and "tame" it, such that it is on its way to being part of the range of financial options like 401ks and such, is because it allows for the fed to keep inflating the currency, without actually printing more money or doing QE4.

[edit - link to The Conversable Economist article on the state of crypto, which got me thinking on the topic: https://conversableeconomist.wpcomstaging.com/2021/10/04/cryptocurrencies-an-update-and-overview/ ]