Is crypto an investment asset today? Certainly. The majority of currencies are traded on the numerous crypto exchanges. We already know about traders that deal only with crypto assets.
Is crypto a payment tool today? It is in theory. In practice very few people use bitcoins or altcoins to pay for goods and services on a constant basis. Due to the fact that the crypto is characterized by high volatility, it is rather hard to consider them as payment meansif the price of the coin can change dramatically in less than a month.
However, now Stablecoins appear on the scene.
Stablecoin — is a decentralized coin bounded to fiat currency, commodity, or another cryptocurrency. Despite the value of classic crypto which is defined by the market, the stablecoin price is usually the same and its value depends on the value of the bounded asset.
For example, if you have bounded stablecoin to USD, the value of each single coin changes together with the value of USD. The same can be told about any other asset. This factor defines the next differences of stablecoins from the cryptocurrency: