- How many Dollars does a bitcoin buy?
- How many Bitcoins does a Dollar buy?
- When the exchange rate varies, what does that say about the relative value of each currency?
- How many Potatoes can a Dollar buy?
- How many Potatoes can a Bitcoin buy?
- How many Drugs can a Dollar buy?
- How many Drugs can a Bitcoin buy?
The above is extremely oversimplified but much like a global foreign exchange relies on shifting exchange rates, so does the value of all currency in terms of relative buying power. In terms of absolute buying power - my personal highly subjective bid is that a currency's "value" is a compound of its' exchange rate as well as the amount of people willing to exchange it, and the amount of it in circulation as well as the breadth of people willing to accept it in exchange for goods and services.
If A mints a coin for free and sells it to B for $0.25, B sells it to C for $0.50, C sells it to D for $0.75, and D sells it to E for $1.00, at which point it crashes to zero, A, B, C and D have all made $0.25 each, and E has lost $1.00, but nothing of value was created or destroyed.
E incorrectly believed that the coin was worth $1.00 and thus that more wealth existed in the world than was actually the case, but that doesn’t mean wealth was ever destroyed, just that his incorrect estimate was updated.
How can a crypto coin lose 99% of its value? It was worth nothing to begin with. No wealth created, no wealth destroyed. Plain transference.
If I convince one person to pay $10 for a quarter, are all quarters worth $10?
If you answered "yes", you can run https://coinmarketcap.com/.