When Bitcoin launched in January 2009, few people took it seriously and even fewer had the means to mine, buy or spend it. By the end of 2021, the Pew Research Center reported that 16% of Americans had held cryptocurrency and 86% had heard of it. Despite all of this, many of us remain perplexed by the topic, so Ben and Bob invited Yahoo! Finance’s David Hollerith to join us for a conversation about the origins and potential of crypto. We hope this helps!

David Hollerith is a senior reporter who covers cryptocurrency for Yahoo! Finance. To keep up on his reporting, make sure to follow him on twitter at @DsHollers.

If you enjoy this episode, check out #192 The History of Financial Bubbles w/ William Quinn.

This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

David Hollerith’s Crypto Reading list:

The summer’s liquidity crisis:

• ‘Things start to break:’ Crypto faces ‘liquidity crisis’ (Yahoo Finance)

• ‘I trusted them with my savings:’ Crypto investors scramble after accounts frozen (Yahoo Finance)

• The Crypto Geniuses Who Vaporized a Trillion Dollars (NY Mag)

Crime and Privacy:

• U.S. sanctions crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, citing North Korea ties

Major institutional investors not done yet:

• BlackRock announces new bitcoin trust, sends small token up 35% (Yahoo Finance)

Here are two explainers on what crypto is:

• Latecomer’s guide to crypto (NYT) (helpful guide, no need to read all of it!)
• Short video of how the crypto industry’s biggest players explain what it is (3:39 minute)