On Friday morning last week, Sam Bankman-FriedAn American entrepreneur who was the youngest billionaire in the world. He had pledged to give most of his wealth to charity across his life, before being arrested on fraud charges. had a fortune of $16bn. By the end of the day, he had next to nothing.

How could this happen? Bankman-Fried made his money from a company called FTX, which allowed people to buy and sell cryptocurrencyA digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralised system using cryptography, rather than by a centralised authority.. It was one of the biggest crypto platforms in the world.

But last week it went into a crisis. Over three days, FTX lost $6bn. It was forced to suspend withdrawals from its accounts, and on Friday later it filed for bankruptcy.

The customers have suffered most. It is thought that between $1bn and $2bn of their money was locked up in FTX and now cannot be retrieved.¹

The crisis has sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency world. All cryptocurrencies saw massive losses.

That is why some think this spells the end of the cryptocurrency age.

Crypto was invented in 2008 as an alternative to traditional currencies linked with big banks governments. The dream was to democratise money and put it back in the hands of ordinary people.

But it has been a tumultuous ride since 2008. The crypto sector has had frequent booms, and just as frequent busts.

But the FTX crisis is different. The company claimed to be a "responsible" crypto company, stepping in to stabilise an immature sector. Those who had been burnt by earlier crashes could trust them with their money.

Now, some argue, it has become the plaything of irresponsible billionaires who end up costing the little people all their savings.

But others think this is just a blip. They argue that for as long as it is still possible to make a lot of money on crypto, the currencies will stick around. 

And they say instability is the point: unlike the carefully controlled stock market, crypto means people can win big, even if they can also lose big.

Yes: This whole crisis took place because of the foolish and selfish decisions of the billionaire owners of crypto exchanges. Now ordinary people have lost their money.

No: Crypto is still having teething troubles, but the basic idea of putting currency back in the people's hands has not lost its shine. It is just waiting for a technical solution to come and stabilise it.

Or... Crypto was never a con, but the buzz around it led people to make unwise financial decisions. Everyone got carried away, stopped thinking clearly, and lost their money as a result.