Now, to be fair to the bitcoin bros (not great) and XRP army (worse), even the World Health Organisation had around that time started pushing the idea that Covid could be being spread by banknotes (while simultaneously recommending that people should not wear masks), now thought to be “very unlikely”. Even if banknotes were a key transmission vector, however, we are not sure that “dirty fiat” itself could be held responsible, given that the vast majority of it only exists in digital form. Why would you use bitcoin, or XRP, or any other crypto token when you can transact digitally using fiat currencies?
But no true cryptocurrency emerged until the late 2000s when Bitcoin came onto the scene.

Outside of Binance there has been a shift to using Coinbase or Gemini, but out of the two reviewed above, there is one clear leader.
"It is one of many schemes by which naïve retail investors are drawn in and exploited by malevolent crypto promoters," Cornell University economist Eswar Prasad told the BBC.