That is, where does it's value come from? You answered that question quite clearly and logically. There is zero.
You are entirely correct that there is nothing backing any cryptocurrency, but I would advise you that that point alone is quite irrelevant. When you are evaluating as a currency, the absolutely first and foremost consideration is the faith that the using community has in it to be accepted as payment for goods and services. Anyone who believes that it won't be accepted as payment will not value it, while those who have full faith that it will be accepted as payment will value it greatly.
So we evaluate cryptocurrencies against fiat currencies such as the US Dollar and the Euro, as examples. Regarding the US Dollar, you may engage in discussions with others about the Fed this, and the inflation that, and the overprinting this, and the interest rate that, but none of that affects your full faith that every Starbucks, every Lowes, every Burger King, every car wash, every hooker, everybody ....
will give you a price in Dollars and will thus accept your Dollars as payment. How far your Dollar will go is a separate matter, you simply
don't believe you'd even be able to find anyone who somehow
won't accept Dollars. In the Euro-zone, the same thing goes for the Euro; everyone has full faith, with zero doubt, that their Euros will be accepted as payment for goods and services, with the value of the Euro being a separate matter that does not shake their underlying faith that their Euros will be accepted.
Then we consider "cryptocurrencies." You ask yourself, if I roll into a Home Depot, will they accept my Eigenpie (EGP), the very first cryptocurrency of September 2024. Will you accept it? Wait, you didn't even ask me how it's performing. Do you not care? No, you absolutely do not care because that is a completely separate matter and is irrelevant to whether you believe any other businesses would accept it from you in payment for goods and services.
Consider this: an average of 5,300 new cryptocurrencies were launched
every day in early 2024, meaining September 2024 saw the incpetion of 159,000 new cryptocurrencies. If you run a business, which ones are you going to accept as payment, or are you going to accept all of them, or are you going to accept none of them?
It's a multi-level marketing scheme, those that get in early and pump up the dream get rich and the masses are left holding nothing but broken dreams. Is that about right?
Yes, you are so very close. The one erroneous nuance is your misconception about those lucky people who "get in early." NOBODY in the general public gets in early. The "pump-n-dump" cadre are all part of the scam that you so astutely discern.
Let's say that I am an unscrupulous scamster, and so I do the legwork to create a cryptocurrency IBDaCrypto, so that I can effect a "pump-n-dump". Of course I'm only doing it to scam people and make a killing, but I need help from a cadre who will effect the "dump" phase. I contact you,
Into the Night, and other buddies to be in my cadre, and your reward will be a 20x - 30x payout of whatever you throw in, i.e. you assure me that you can scrape together $1 million, and you know that you'll be walking away with between $20 million and $30 million.
Into the Night believes he can scrape together $5 million and he'll walk away with $100 million to $150 million. I get several other people to round out the cadre and I join in as well.
So once the cadre is established, I create many millions of digital tokens (I can create as many as I want/need). Let's say I set an opening price of $1. Over the first three days on the exchange, I make sure IBDaCryto is not available for purchase by the public, and the cadre slowly buy up large quantities of the tokens (i.e. you pay me your $1 million by buying 1,000,000 tokens on the exchange, so that the transaction is registered as legitimate, as do all the cadre with their "entry fees"). I just take the money that I'm making off the cadre's entry fees and legitimately buying (giving myself) millions of tokens as well.
Then, when the cadre has all the tokens they can buy, I run an ad blitz on the internet, hype up the crypto currency all over the planet, and spread FOMO telling everyone that they absolutely MUST act now to get in early and make their 50x! The rush pumps up the price on the exchange from the initial $1/token to between $20 - $30. Let's say that the price on the exchange gets up to $23; you sell your 1,000,000 tokens and walk aways with $23 million, we shake hands, I thank you for your outstanding contribution, and you ask me to keep you posted if I ever need help in the future.
Into the Night walks away with $115 million, all the others are happy, and I clean up with the $20 million in entry fees I collected from the cadre plus $184 million from dumping 8 million tokens that didn't cost me anything to create.
The IBDaCrypto (IBDC) takes only a few hours for the price to fall from a high of $26.34 to $0.46. I sell IBDaCrypto to some investor for $44K and I walk away.