From what understand, money doesn’t just disappear. When you’re at a poker table playing, the sum of money everyone started with is the same at the end(when someone loses $100, other(s) gain $100). If I sell you a crypto for $100 and it drops to $0, I would still have your $100. In this case, wouldn’t someone/some groups of people get all the money that is currently being lost?
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Poker as you describe it is a “zero-sum game” – whatever is lost by one player is gained by another.
The real world doesn’t work like that. I’m a plumber with a car that won’t start. You’re a mechanic with a leaky sink. It’s trivial for me to solve your problem or you to solve mine, but we can’t solve our own problems. If we trade services we are both richer than before. So value can be created.
But sometimes that value only exists in our minds. Securities and so forth are valued at the price during the last actual transaction. When something is highly desirable people bid more for it, the price goes up, we say it is “worth” more. It loses desirability, people are unwilling to pay the high price, it’s “worth” goes down.
I have a shiny Charizard card, which everyone wants. You buy it from me for $5. People will say it’s “worth” $5 or it’s “going for” $5. I decide I want it back, but you don’t give it up easily, so I pay you $10 for it. Then you realize how much you really like that card and offer me $15 for it, which I take. Then I realize this card is a great investment since I make money every time I buy it and then sell it, so I offer you $20 which you take. Then I try to sell it back to you, but you’re not as dumb as I am plus there’s some foil You-gi-oh card you want, so you are not interested. I look around and the only other buyers have lukewarm interest and are only willing to pay a dollar. So I sell it for a dollar. I have lost $19, but it didn’t go anywhere. The other part of the “worth” was in our desire to own the card, which has evaporated.
Prices are a popularity contest. Something loses popularity, it’s price changes, what people say it’s “worth” changes.
Decode sentences with the word “worth” very carefully. “Price” has a meaning, it’s what someone just paid for something, is willing to pay for something, or is willing to sell something for. Value has a more nebulous meaning, and it’s subjective, different people can value something differently. But “worth”, in practice, is a treacherous word and people use it carelessly, causing confusion.
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