If the safety, speed, and reliability of cryptocurrency are so overrated, why then are so many people spending so much money to buy it? A big part of the reason is a pure speculative bubble, similar to the “tulip mania” of 1630s Holland. Still, there must be some underlying reason driving people to speculate in cryptocurrency, as opposed to, say, seashells or golf balls.

That reason, simply put: cryptocurrency is good for crime. Cryptocoin ownership is shrouded with military-grade cryptography. Everyone can see that coin X is owned by someone with a certain code, but it’s next to impossible to figure out whose code that is. Most people who buy cryptocoins are speculators, not crooks; but the ultimate “value” that makes them worth speculating in is the value of secrecy for criminals.

Cryptocoin crooks come in all varieties. Tax evaders are always happy to hide what they’re doing. Malware hackers who demand ransoms to unlock businesses’ frozen computer networks are big cryptocoin fans as well. Last year, a New York grand jury indicted a Russian for using cryptocurrency to launder some $4 billion of illicit funds from computer hackers and drug traffickers. Folks from places like North Korea and Iran, which are supposed to be subject to international sanctions, routinely use cryptocoins to evade them. White nationalist Richard Spencer says “Bitcoin is the currency of the alt-right.”