A bitcoin is an Over the Counter (OTC) Credit-Swap (funded Credit Swap or fCS).

To you, it is only worth what the last guy sold it to you for and made off with. You funded "his" credit for it and the next guy (is assumed to be willing to) fund yours!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000

The reason Bitcoins/Altcoin tokens are legal is because they are OTC derivatives. Otherwise they would be a Ponzi scheme.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=175708.msg1832923#msg1832923


The markets for them are not "exchanges", they are simply marketplaces.

Stop pretending that BTC is a national socialist "currency" backed by a national socialist economy, it is not.