Due to their political independence and essentially impenetrable data security, cryptocurrency users enjoy benefits not available to users of traditional fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, and the financial systems that those currencies support.
Cryptocurrency can be mined by people by using computers. By mining cryptocurrency, people are rewarded small amounts of Bitcoin or another crypto for doing so.

Another institutional hit for bitcoin–which probably had the most sustained effect–was the SEC’s refusal to approve a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). This would be a path for more mainstream people in finance to dabble with blockchain; it would allow investors to dip their toes in bitcoin without owning the actual asset. Not only that, but it would make bitcoin available on the most prominent financial markets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), however, has yet to allow such a fund to exist–mostly because it is unable to monitor crypto-transactions in order to avoid market manipulation.
Without a clear track record to assess long-term value, cryptocurrency rises and falls on an unpredictable demand cycle. And for individual investors, the challenge is “you really don’t know where supply and demand can end up,” Aliaga-Díaz says.