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# 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 [negative-sum](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](../claims/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"
* "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
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1. Golumbia, D. (2016). The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-wing Extremism. University of Minnesota Press.
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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.
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