Despite the occasional scare-mongering and imaginary scenarios of financial apocalypse, many people still view bitcoin as an asset to be held. Others want to benefit from the innovations.

“With bitcoin, in the long run it’s interesting and exciting, but maybe I wouldn’t do it right now because I would be depressed that I couldn’t pay for my house with bitcoin,” said Julien Faubert, the owner of a small grocery store in Angra dos Reis.

One businessman in Brazil said he was seeing bitcoin used for such everyday transactions as paying for groceries, but the majority of those who used it didn’t want to use it for more complex transactions.

“I can’t sell bitcoins to buy medicines. I sell bitcoin to buy groceries,” said David Silva, the owner of a 24-hour electronics store in Guarujá, a city in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.

Silva added he was planning to sell his bitcoin holdings for dollars at some point, because bitcoin is used for so many things that he cannot benefit from it even with a significant market cap.

Silva said he believed bitcoin would be adopted further, but that he was already worried about its future adoption.

“I’m gonna sell my bitcoin. As soon as it goes over $1,000, I’m going to sell my bitcoin. But before it goes over $1,000, the price won’t be much higher,” Silva said.

Other merchants said they would not adopt bitcoin because its price is not justified. Luis Antonio Amaral, who manages a shoe shop in São Paulo, said, “In the context of a recession and maybe depression, we have to increase our profits to be able to keep our employees. It’s not logical to pay employees in bitcoin.”

Some agree. Antonio Silva, the owner of a small real estate company in Belo Horizonte, said that he believes bitcoin is a “scam.”

“The only thing I can see is that the price will go up. It’s not going to go down."