# Crypto has a weird subculture
The crypto subculture is an example of a self-organizing [high control group](../concepts/high-control-group.md) whose existence organically creates a market mania, [bubble](../concepts/bubble.md) and [narrative economics](../concepts/narrative-economics.md) that entices the public to invest in the asset class or join the group and its subculture.

Since the asset class is [non-productive](../concepts/productive-asset.md) and [is-negative-sum](is-negative-sum.md) the crypto scheme entirely depends on attracting new investor inflows based on narratives of "money for nothing" and "easy wealth" that clash with traditional readings of [economics](../concepts/keynsian-economics.md). These schemes may also depend on [technosolutionism](../concepts/technosolutionism.md) or [libertarianism](../concepts/libertarianism.md) to justify bringing more [greater fools](../concepts/greater-fool-theory.md) into the scheme.

Crypto culture depends heavily on a distortion of language to signify belonging to an ingroup and leans heavily on [thought terminating cliches](../concepts/thought-terminating-cliches.md) to quell dissent and rational discourse. Within the crypto [subculture](is-weird-culture.md) there are several thought-terminating cliches.

* "have fun staying poor" / "hfsp"
* "If you don't believe it or don't get it, I don't have the time to try to convince you"
* "we're all going to make" / "wagmi"
* "we're so early"
* "hold on for dear life" / "hodl"
* "the dollar is a ponzi scheme" / everything is a ponzi"
* "now do the dollar"
* "FUD"
* "few understand"
* "bullish"
* "to the moon"
* "diamond hands"

## References
1. Venkataramakrishnan, Siddharth, and Robin Wigglesworth. 2021. ‘Inside the Cult of Crypto’. Financial Times, 10 September 2021. https://www.ft.com/content/9e787670-6aa7-4479-934f-f4a9fedf4829.
1. Olson, Dan. 2022. Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g.
1. Bellinger, M. (2018). The Rhetoric of Bitcoin: Money, Politics, and the Construction of Blockchain Communities [PhD Thesis]. In ResearchWorks Archive. https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/43342
1. Bernstein, W. J. (2021). The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups. Grove Press.
1. Breidbach, C. F., & Tana, S. (2021). Betting on Bitcoin: How social collectives shape cryptocurrency markets. Journal of Business Research, 122, 311–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.09.017
1. Brunton, F. (2019). Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179490/digital-cash
1. Bruun, M. H., Andersen, A. O., & Mannov, A. (2020). Infrastructures of trust and distrust: The politics and ethics of emerging cryptographic technologies. Anthropology Today, 36(2), 13–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12562
1. Diehl, S. (2021, February 3). Gamestop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage. https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/gamestop.html
1. DuPont, Q. (2017). Experiments in algorithmic governance: A history and ethnography of “The DAO,” a failed decentralized autonomous organization. In Bitcoin and beyond (pp. 157–177). Routledge. http://iqdupont.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DuPont-Experiments_in_Algorithmic_Governance-2017.pdf
1. Faria, I. (2021). The market, the regulator, and the government: Making a blockchain ecosystem in the Netherlands. Finance and Society, 7(1), 40–56. https://doi.org/10.2218/finsoc.v7i1.5590
1. Faustino, S. (2019). How metaphors matter: An ethnography of blockchain-based re-descriptions of the world. Journal of Cultural Economy, 12(6), 478–490. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2019.1629330
1. Fletcher, J. (2013). Currency in Transition: An Ethnographic Inquiry of Bitcoin Adherents. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/2748/
1. Gerard, David. 2017. Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts. David Gerard.
1. Gerard, D. (n.d.). Neo-Nazis Bet Big on Bitcoin (And Lost). Retrieved 3 March 2022, from https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/19/neo-nazis-banked-on-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-farright-christchurch/
1. Glongloff, M. (n.d.). Bitcoin, GameStop Are More Cults Than Investments. Bloomberg. Retrieved 2 March 2022, from https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-02/bitcoin-btc-gamestop-gme-are-more-cults-than-investments
1. Golumbia, D. (2016). The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-wing Extremism. University of Minnesota Press.
1. Hayden, M., & Squire, M. (n.d.). How Cryptocurrency Revolutionized the White Supremacist Movement. Souther Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 3 March 2022, from https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/12/09/how-cryptocurrency-revolutionized-white-supremacist-movement
1. Jarvis, C. (2021). Cypherpunk ideology: Objectives, profiles, and influences (1992–1998). Internet Histories, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2021.1935547
1. Kavanagh, D., Miscione, G., & Ennis, P. J. (2019). The Bitcoin game: Ethno-resonance as method. Organization, 26(4), 517–536. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508419828567
1. Kosmarski, A., & Gordiychuk, N. (2021). Anthropology and blockchain. In Anthropology Today (Vol. 37, Issue 6, pp. 1–3). Wiley Online Library. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12683
1. Krugman, P. (2022, January 11). The Strange Alliance of Crypto and MAGA Believers. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/opinion/crypto-cryptocurrency-money-conspiracy.html
1. Lee, S. C. (2020). Magical capitalism, gambler subjects: South Korea’s bitcoin investment frenzy. Cultural Studies, 0(0), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2020.1788620
1. Maddox, A. (2020). Disrupting the Ethnographic Imaginarium: Challenges of Immersion in the Silk Road Cryptomarket Community. Journal of Digital Social Research, 2(1), 20–38. https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v2i1.23
1. Peebles, G. (2020). Banking on Digital Money: Swedish Cashlessness and the Fraying Currency Tether. Cultural Anthropology, 36(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca36.1.01
1. Penny, L. (2018). Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s Nouveau Riche. In BREAKERMAG. https://breakermag.com/trapped-at-sea-with-cryptos-nouveau-riche/
1. Starita, G. D. (2018). On Bitcoin usage, Techno-optimism and Participation-An anthropological perspective on Rovereto s Bitcoin Valley users [Master’s Thesis]. https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/374186
1. Stephenson, W. (n.d.). Cryptonomicon. Harpers Review. Retrieved 2 March 2022, from https://harpers.org/archive/2022/03/cryptonomicon-bitcoin-maximalists-miami/
1. The charm of cryptocurrencies for white supremacists. (2022, February 5). The Economist. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/02/05/the-charm-of-cryptocurrencies-for-white-supremacists
1. Tremčinský, M. (2022). Bitcoin and its spheres of consumption: Transactional orders of consuming money in the Czech and Slovak Bitcoin community. Economic Anthropology, 9(1), 35–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12189
1. Valley, B. (2018). On Bitcoin usage, Techno-optimism and Participation (Issue August) [PhD Thesis]. https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/374186
1. Venkataramakrishnan, S., & Wigglesworth, R. (2021, September 10). Inside the cult of crypto. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/9e787670-6aa7-4479-934f-f4a9fedf4829
1. Warzel, C. (2021, May 11). The Absurdity is the Point [Substack newsletter]. Galaxy Brain. https://warzel.substack.com/p/the-absurdity-is-the-point
1. Weisenthal, J. (n.d.). Bitcoin Is a Faith-Based Asset. Retrieved 2 March 2022, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-21/bitcoin-is-a-faith-based-asset-joe-weisenthal
1. Xu, Y. (2021). Digitizing death: Commodification of joss paper on Chinese online cemetery. Journal of Cultural Economy, 0(0), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2021.1952099
1. Faustino, S. (2019). How metaphors matter: An ethnography of blockchain-based re-descriptions of the world. Journal of Cultural Economy, 12(6), 478–490. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2019.1629330
1. Penny, L. (2018). Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s Nouveau Riche. In BREAKERMAG. https://breakermag.com/trapped-at-sea-with-cryptos-nouveau-riche/
1. Stephenson, W. (n.d.). Cryptonomicon. Harpers Review. Retrieved 2 March 2022, from https://harpers.org/archive/2022/03/cryptonomicon-bitcoin-maximalists-miami/
1. Faustino, Sandra, Inês Faria, and Rafael Marques. 2021. ‘The Myths and Legends of King Satoshi and the Knights of Blockchain’. Journal of Cultural Economy 0 (0): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2021.1921830.
1. Golumbia, David. 2018. ‘Zealots of the Blockchain: The True Believers of the Bitcoin Cult’. The Baffler, no. 38: 102–11.
1. Lee, Seung Cheol. 2020. ‘Magical Capitalism, Gambler Subjects: South Korea’s Bitcoin Investment Frenzy’. Cultural Studies 0 (0): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2020.1788620.
1. Mackay, Charles. 2012. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Simon and Schuster.
1. Samman, Amin, and Stefano Sgambati. n.d. ‘Financial Eschatology and the Libidinal Economy of Leverage’. Theory, Culture & Society (Forthcoming). https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764211070805.