RE: Are we in a Cryptocurrency Bubble?
Far far from the point of the Internet bubble. When we start seeing billions tossed around in smart contracts which are all hype then we are in something like the Internet bubble. We are seeing 10 million here, 12 million there. And we will continue seeing this because there is massive wealth from Ethereum crowdsale token holders and miners and no where to put it.
Is there a stable Ethereum Dollar yet? No. Is there any token in Ethereum which is considered safe and which pays out a dividend? No? Then the only thing a holder can do when the price goes up is put it into an ICO and try to get even more to beat inflation of Ethers. Only a mature market will provide enough options so that this changes.
And getting in and out of fiat also is not free. When you want to cash out, and if you do so without waiting for 2 years, you get to pay 40% in income taxes. So a lot of ICO token holders and Ethereum crowdsale holders can literally do nothing better than to sit on their stashes for 2 years.
Result? The wealth is trapped with no where safe to go except into ICOs. Call it a bubble but there is no way to pop it and it's far from the stage where it can be. Maybe proof of stake will settle it all down though as holding ETH will give a premium while today it gives a penalty. Cashing out into fiat still give give a penalty though so maybe people complaining about this bubble should be pushing to change the laws so cryptocurrency is tax exempt. I expect if you did that then you'd see billions of dollars cashed out and no more ICO bubbles.