Speculative get-rich-quick phenomenon around Bitcoin and altcoins that created fortunes (and wiped them out) across multiple boom-bust cycles from 2013-2023, transforming from cypherpunk project to mainstream financial mania.
Bitcoin Cycles
- 2013: $13 → $1,200 (Mt. Gox era)
- 2017: $1,000 → $19,783 (ICO mania, “blockchain not Bitcoin”)
- 2021: $10K → $69,000 (institutional adoption, NFTs, El Salvador legal tender)
- 2022: Crash to $15,500 (FTX collapse, Terra Luna implosion)
Cultural Artifacts
- HODL (2013): Typo turned mantra (“Hold On for Dear Life”)
- Diamond Hands (2020): Refusing to sell despite losses
- Laser Eyes (2021): Bitcoin maximalist Twitter pfp trend
- Lambos & Yachts: Material wealth signaling
- “Have fun staying poor”: Dismissing skeptics
Casualties & Cautionary Tales
- QuadrigaCX: $190M lost when CEO died with passwords (2018)
- Terra Luna: $40B stablecoin collapse (May 2022)
- FTX: Sam Bankman-Fried’s $32B fraud (Nov 2022)
- Celsius, Voyager, BlockFi: Lender bankruptcies (2022)
By 2023, “crypto wealth” content pivoted from Lambos to loss porn and forensic fraud documentaries.
Sources:
- r/Bitcoin, r/CryptoCurrency (combined 10M+ members)
- CoinMarketCap historical data
- DOJ Sam Bankman-Fried sentencing (2023)