Then got here the pandemic. As governments closed down companies and handed out cash to individuals unable to work, central banks launched into essentially the most exorbitant cash creation packages in historical past. A lot of that cash discovered its method into crypto markets, elevating costs to unprecedented ranges and fueling the fast development of high-yield lending, complicated artificial belongings and poisonous derivatives of a sort final seen earlier than the 2008 monetary disaster. Whereas the actual financial system was shut down, there was a cryptocurrency feeding frenzy. Pension funds, hedge funds, software program firms, soccer golf equipment and celebrities all acquired in on the act, and plenty of odd individuals made life-changing quantities of cash.