1.3 T according to: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2022/html/ecb.sp220...

people are not going into debt to buy crypto

Unfortunately, lots of people are indeed going into debt for crypto. That’s what happens when unregulated gambling becomes widely available.

“Survey: Americans Borrow Money, Default on Bills to Buy Cryptocurrency

More than 32% of cryptocurrency investors have used a payday loan in the past, and 11% have used a payday loan or title loan to invest in cryptocurrency, in spite of triple-digit interest rates…

About 21% of crypto-investors said they’ve used a loan to pay for their cryptocurrency investments. Personal loans were most popular, but payday loans, title loans, mortgage refinances, home equity loans and leftover student loan funds also have been utilized…

Investors are going into debt: Almost 19% of respondents said they’ve struggled to pay at least one bill due to the amount of money they’ve invested in cryptocurrency, and about 15% said they’ve worried about eviction, foreclosure or car repossession due to their investing…

More than 35% have used a credit card to purchase cryptocurrency, with about 20% of those paying it off when the bill came due, and another 14% are paying it off incrementally with either an 0% APR introductory offer or at the full interest rate, while 1% maxed out their card altogether…”

https://debthammer.org/cryptocurrency-survey/

(shout-out to Molly White @molly0xFFF for continuing to meticulously document this disaster at https://web3isgoinggreat.com)

my point is that the ammount of borrowing people are doing to get into crypto is nothing in comparison to the amount of borrowing that drove the real estate bubble

Every dollar they put into crypto, borrowed or not, could have gone into something with an actual use case. A house has a use. A tulip bulb has a use.

> A house has a use

yet the housing market crashed and will probably crash again

You can grow a pretty flower from a tulip bulb.

Indeed. And with enough sun, rain, soil, and chill hours[1], that bulb can become two in a few years, doubling your investment…

[1] which can and should be faked by putting the bulb in the fridge for 12-14 weeks before planting, if you live in a warm winter climate like the Bay Area

I have no sources and neither do you, but I am pretty sure that this statement is factually wrong.

i am pretty confident that people are not taking out mortgage-sized-loans to buy crypto. if they are banks should be taken out of business ... by crypto

[EDITED]

are you pretty confident people are not taking home equity loans to buy crypto?

in comparison to the amount of people taking out home loans in order to get in on the housing bubble that was subsidized by the government ... yes definitely

Since you're confident, I'm sure that means it's not happening.

Mortgage is specifically for housing

HELOC says hello

I wouldn't say that. I know of people who took debt to get crypto because "the return will be much higher".

sure there are going to be some cases (outliers) but nothing like in the housing bubble

I know people even in the 2017 runup that got second mortgages and loans on their 401k.

a bank approved someone's second mortgage to buy cryto? that's awful! i really do hope that crypto takes traditional banks out of business :)

You seem to have changed your position from 'people are not doing this' to 'the banks shouldn't be letting people do this' That's a pretty big shift.

people are not doing this on the scale of real estate bubble. i am sure of that. but banks should be punished for giving out unsafe loans definitely

HELOC.

People have been taking out debt from crypto firms to buy crypto. That's what all the "staking" nonsense was about - and why it blew up. People are also buying on margin, which is a form of debt.

> People are also buying on margin

people have been trading foreign currency with HUGE margins long before crypto