If you too, like me not long ago, found yourself opening crypto wallets and frantically checking the inflation rate of the coins every half hour, turns out that feeling was vastly more complex than simply FOMO of waking up quite literally a multi-millionaire. Much like many addictive aspects out there in our lives, cryptocurrency trading shares many of its traits with gambling and substance abuse. So much so, that in June of this year, Scotland became the first country in the world to open a rehabilitation centre for those battling with cryptocurrency trading addictions.
Yes sure, trading in stocks is also an addiction in its own right, but isn’t the dark side of crypto trading and its addictive byproduct essentially the clearest indicator there can be (a red flag in fact) that the currency is flaky as hell and more unstable than mining coins on a domestic router? The Scottish Castle CraigHospital’s new crypto-addiction department is unique and should not be overlooked for its significant forward thinking. But what should also be notable are the dangers of continuing to pump money into a coin—and a future economy—that is gravely unstable and unpredictable.
“Cryptocurrency users can get hooked by the volatile fluctuation of prices online which creates a ‘high’ when they buy or trade a winning currency” and “this can be exciting but also addictive and… financially disastrous,” said a representative from the clinic. The symptoms of crypto addiction are not dissimilar to those of gambling, from people risking their spare money to groceries funds, rent and mortgages. Yet one of the fundamental differences in regard to crypto addiction is that its success stories, like that friend of a friend who made millions in months or 50 Cent becoming an accidental Bitcoin millionaire, are heavily mediatised. As crypto coins gained immense traction twelve months ago, with Bitcoin reaching a figure of £12,000 per coin and Ethereum and others following in its footsteps, it seemed that everyone wanted to get their hands on it—heck even I went as far as opening a crypto wallet and started to dabble in a trade of a currency I essentially knew nothing about—and I’ve never so much as looked at a stock before.
The bottom line here is not so much a praise for the crypto rehab, nor that we need more, but that the speed with which the industry is excelling has left too many gaps in what we should perceive the currency to be and how it might be regulated. There are still advocates of crypto trading who do not believe an addiction to the trade exists and that, according to Manav Singhal, CEO of the blockchain startup Velix.ID, “Profits and losses are just a part of the trading, and it is no different than trading any other kinds of securities.” Adding that “There’re many reasons that make you trade cryptocurrencies frequently, given how fast things are changing in the industry.” And indeed that is true. But when an industry has boomed so quickly and to no limitation, without regulation (which granted is the great thing about crypto and yes I admit this opens up all sorts of questions to currency regulation), the most financially vulnerable are at very high risk of losing it all, including psychological wellbeing.
Even though Bitcoin is at an all-time low (it has been plummeting since its peak in December 2017 and is now at 68 percent of its then value), and the crypto economy having shed a total $500 billion according to CoinMarketCap, success stories in its trade still surround us—small and large. So as the haze of accidental or fluke crypto cash-ins fades; as the market value drops and as more and more people are being treated for serious addiction issues around it, it might be time to move away from the free-of-regulations dream that this currency promises and truly start to tackle the dangers it poses in real life.
