The historical record of Bitcoin suggests its greatest leaps are made thanks to speculation, rather than to any real progress in utility or technology. Bitcoin’s rise to $19,000 from $6,500 at the end of 2017 was fueled by the belief that the price was only ever going to go up. There was no evidence of any increased adoption in the real world — if anything, the heuristics of Bitcoin trading called for hoarding, or HODLing, to sit on the gains.