Bitcoin and all the pathetic fake currencies that popped up in its wake are the worst thing to happen to the investment world in my lifetime.

They are a joke wrapped in a fraud, wrapped in a Ponzi scheme and sold as a get-rich-quick investment opportunity.

While I'm told the underlying blockchain technology has some practical uses, I’ve yet to see much evidence of it.

Even if it does, it doesn't justify the crypto hype. At its peak in November 2021, so-called alt-coins had a total market capitalisation of an incredible $3trillion (£2.5trillion).

That’s the same as the UK’s annual total economic output.

All that for a digital currency that isn’t backed by any central bank, has zero security and can vanish in a second with no redress.

Crypto is the misbegotten offspring of the US technology boom, but at least that brought real world progress.

Apple gave us iPhones, Amazon let us shop without leaving the house, Netflix amused us during the pandemic, Tesla sells electric status symbols and Twitter frees us to issue death threats to total strangers.

We may not like them, but at least we understand them.

Crypto developers should tear themselves away from their TikTok feeds and use their undoubted skills to build real companies in the real world, making goods and services that real people want to buy.

Make the world a better place, rather than stupider, dirtier (Bitcoin has more carbon emissions than Ireland) and more corrupt.

It has also given a small army of frenzied online traders the idea that they can get rich overnight (most end up poorer). Crypto trading is a casino, for gambling addicts only.

Advocates claim it's a more practical way of making international payments, but that's frankly rubbish.

Some hope of that.

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Two factors fuelled the rise of Bitcoin.

The first was the loss of faith in fiat currencies after the financial crisis, as central bankers printed trillions of dollars worth of virtual money to prevent systemic meltdown. This gave computer programmers and hackers the green light to do the same.

Then years of near-zero interest rates created a pile of hot money flowing around the world looking for a quick return.

Last year, as inflation rocketed, interest rates climbed and monetary policy tightened, investors suddenly didn’t have money to chuck at daft concepts like crypto.

Now traders are growing in confidence as they anticipate the US Federal Reserve will soon start cutting interest rates rather than hiking them.

When that happens, Bitcoin is likely to fly again. The price has already jumped 50.53 percent to $24,996 this year.

This is only the start.

Its recent run will play on people's worst instincts, as the old cycle of fear and greed kicks in again.

Bitcoin is on its way back, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Aside from keep a safe distance.