Since the dawn of civilization, everything humans have traded in markets has had one thing in common: it does something outside of market exchange. This is not only how markets work; it is the very reason they exist. After all, how could something be presented to the public if it does nothing? Therefore, there must always be a non-market function.

Grains feed. Livestock nourish. Textiles clothe the body. Land provides space for shelter, farming, and construction. Oil fuels. Steel forms buildings and machines. Stocks generate cash flow and offer liquidation value if a company shuts down. Software connects, automates, and solves tasks, helping users work faster. Art pleases the senses. Memorabilia evokes nostalgia.

Even money, whether past or present, has a function beyond serving as a means of exchange. Gold forms religious artifacts, ornaments, jewelry, decorations, dental restorations, electronic components, spacecraft coatings, and more. Dollars, because they are issued as debt owed to the U.S. banking system, leave the market daily to reduce and eventually eliminate that debt.

Then came Bitcoin. Presented to the public under the generic label of "money," such classification raises a question: Why use such a broad and nonspecific term? The answer is simple: because Bitcoin does nothing. It has no actual function to present, and using a generic term was the only way to introduce it. Bitcoin is the first trade-only phenomenon: once it enters the market, it never leaves it to do something. Whoever buys it has only one option: to sell it to another buyer. That buyer, in turn, must do the same. Bitcoin holders are trapped in a cycle of market transactions, unable to do anything with it except pass it along.

Although Bitcoin has been advertised as money and later as an asset or a commodity, it is none of these, as all such items have a function beyond mere transactions.

The continuous cycle of Bitcoin transactions has created the largest bubble ever, with people currently paying $84,000 for a single Bitcoin. They then believe this represents Bitcoin's worth. But that belief is false. This is not value. That figure reflects only the amount someone was willing to pay; it is the record of the last trade. In short, it is a price. Markets create prices, not value. Value is function beyond market transactions; it is what something actually does. And in this regard, Bitcoin does nothing. It is the first item ever to have a price but no function.

In essence, Bitcoin embodies the greater fool theory in its purest form. It works only as long as there is another buyer willing to play along. Even items involved in speculative bubbles, such as tulips or Beanie Babies, still have some function outside of buying and selling (flowers could be grown and enjoyed, toys could be played with).

Unlike these items, or assets in general, whose inflated prices may temporarily detach from their actual function but eventually realign with it, Bitcoin's price has nothing to return to. And when buyers run out, all that remains is the realization: something with only a price, no matter how high, was never truly worth anything at all.