How do people lose faith in currencies? You start by devaluing them. What are some symptoms of people losing faith in them? They start flocking to currency alternatives. Widespread grassroots popularity in cryptos should probably be some sort of warning sign: The people know that they can't get rich using dollars, the investment game is rigged, so it's worth it to try and 'stack' strange assets, even if they're constantly being warned that those assets are peri-legal by the authorities...