Once upon a time, crypto was practically a child's plaything for urban dwellers, as well as speculators glued to their computer monitors. Today, however, the tale is quite different. Across a diverse range of emerging markets, the pace of cryptocurrency adoption has always amazed many industry insiders. Recent data reveals that, in only one year, there has been a 66% increase in the number of users. And these new adopters are coming not from New York or London, but from Lagos, Mumbai, and Jakarta.

This event didn't pop out of thin air. As long as traditional banking access remains limited, transaction fees become expensive, and a certain stuffy atmosphere is felt in bureaucracy, there is an instant solution in the form of crypto: Store, send, and grow money through only a smartphone. For many people, it is like cutting through the red tape into the modern economy.

This kind of euphoria being so lofty has its own set of risks. Most of these people came to the market because someone else told them to, rather than being completely invested in understanding blockchain and the technology that goes along with it. The "early bird or miss the worm" overhype drives people to throw in their savings without much calculation or evaluation. And they find themselves with little more than regret when prices crash.

The picture is made even bleaker because the regulation in most of the emerging markets has still not reached that mark. Governments are busy squabbling over definitions while exactly that has been just another scam disguised as a crypto investment, and the same ultimately happens to the victims of the old financial system - in fact, the very people turn to crypto hoping to be free of the old financial chains.

Still, its potential is undeniable. Crypto has the ability to significantly reduce the exorbitant costs of remittances, it may permit small businesses to receive payments from all over the world, and it can give opportunity to those who have never owned a bank account. The chances are real, but they will not generate true benefits unless paired with education and protection.

The numbers in most emerging markets are great, but they should not only dazzle us. They should motivate more difficult questions. What, precisely, have we built? Is this even a road toward a more just financial inclusion, or just the next great bubble that will leave a residue of blood on the ground?