You're making the mistake of thinking of stock as a speculative instrument only. It's a legal claim upon the economic output of an enterprise - the speculative element is secondary to that.
Even if no market exists to resell a stock, if the company is operating it still has fundamental value, whereas something like bitcoin has no value if nobody else is willing to trade you something.
Given that, I don't think your comparison holds. Yes, a speculative market exists in stocks (and generally, anything else of value.) But the value of a stock is not based purely upon the speculative market that might exist around it - at its root, it has an underlying fundamental value that is not driven by market demand.
Similarly, lots of folks speculate in commodities, but at the end of the day, if you can't sell oil or steel, you can use them to produce other things you can sell.
>But the value of a stock is not based purely upon the speculative market that might exist around it - at its root, it has an underlying fundamental value that is not driven by market demand.
Market demand for the instrument, that is, right? :)
I don't know -- I see a difference here, but it looks only nominal.
If I purchase shares in a privately-held small business that hits tough times, my claim on the output of that company can essentially evaporate -- they won't be paying dividends as no profit exists, I might not be able to sell the stock because no market exists for it, and once the company goes belly-up they pay the bank and lenders before shareholders get anything.
I'm sure a difference exists; I'm no serious investor, so it's easy for me to not see it.
You can argue that currency is a kind of stock in the "enterprise" of the sovereign printing that currency. But is there a qualitative difference between that and bitcoin?
Currency is not a "kind of stock". It is not a claim of ownership in an asset / entity or a claim on a future cash flow stream.
It is in fact the opposite of a claim on the printing operation of the issuer, given that the more currency is printed, the less valuable the currency you hold becomes.
If nobody will accept a currency, it does not continue to have value, because its value is based upon what someone is willing to trade you for it.
Even if no market exists to resell a stock, if the company is operating it still has fundamental value, whereas something like bitcoin has no value if nobody else is willing to trade you something.
Given that, I don't think your comparison holds. Yes, a speculative market exists in stocks (and generally, anything else of value.) But the value of a stock is not based purely upon the speculative market that might exist around it - at its root, it has an underlying fundamental value that is not driven by market demand.
Similarly, lots of folks speculate in commodities, but at the end of the day, if you can't sell oil or steel, you can use them to produce other things you can sell.