Thu Jun 29, 2017 5:06 pm
It depends on what you mean by "lost money."
If you mean that people bought BTC high and sold low, then yes they lost money.
OTOH, if you mean that people bought BTC high and it lost value since they bought it, but they still hodl it, then they haven't lost any money. They still own exactly as much BTC as they did before. It's only when you convert it back to the original currency you bought the BTC with that you realise a loss.
Two things to consider:
1) If BTC continues to become a store of value and a valid method of payment for more and more things, you may never feel the need to convert it back to the currency you originally bought it with. In this case there is no monetary loss at all, only a trade.
2) As long as the trend of the market cap of BTC is growing, then even if 100% of the transactions in BTC are people buying in dollars, holding for a bit, and selling back to dollars, then by definition the majority of participants are realising a"profit" rather than a "loss"