If cryptocurrencies are going to become anything more than a speculative tool for playing money musical chairs, their adoption trajectory will have to change. I can’t think of another emerging technology that experienced a multi-year decline in adoption or usage, and still went on to become more important to the broader economy. Yet that’s precisely what is happening with cryptocurrencies—at least the decline in usage part.

A recent report by the Kansas City Fed finds that the share of U.S. consumers using cryptocurrency for payments, whether for purchases or money transfers, remains miniscule—and has even declined in recent years. This hasn’t dissuaded crypto supporters from once again redefining the supposed “use value” of their favorite digital dollar.

The original bitcoin white paper envisioned peer-to-peer electronic cash, enabling payments directly between individuals without the need for banks. Bitcoin was initially pitched as conduit for an electronic payment system. But more than a decade later, Bitcoin transactions are still slow, expensive and volatile—which explains why its already tiny role in everyday payments has continued to shrink.

The rise in Bitcoin “adoption” is not due to its broader use in transactions, but from people accumulating it as its price has climbed. Its value is entirely self-referential—a bitcoin is worth something because people claim it is. Holding it isn’t about using crypto as a currency but betting on its popularity, hoping the next buyer will pay more.

Bitcoin’s defining feature is that it can be declared worth almost anything. One year it’s $20,000; the next year it’s $100,000. The next day it’s $1 million. No economic model can disprove it, so no one bothers trying. Its price is sustained solely on collective belief, with skeptics told, “Just wait and see.”

In my opinion, cryptocurrency speculation is simply the greater fool theory in practice. Deep down, perhaps some buyers realize they may be fools for buying crypto, but what they are really betting on is that a greater fool will buy it from them at an even higher price.

Bitcoin remains popular, but that popularity is almost entirely driven by speculation, not by any practical use. Far from fulfilling its original promise as a usable form of money, it has instead become a 24/7 global gambling game. In this light and in this environment, its popularity is hardly unsurprising.

The newest kids on the cryptocurrency block are stablecoins. Rather than fluctuate at the whims of speculators, stablecoins are pegged to more traditional financial instruments, like U.S. Treasuries and the dollar. That is, after all the hype about reinventing money, we have essentially returned to the same conclusion: the dollar remains most effective for transactions.

David Moon is president of Moon Capital Management. A version of this piece originally appeared in the USA TODAY NETWORK.