Above my pay-grade.

I don't know.

My guesses - the price of gold has been manipulated? Bitcoin is digital and far more easily moved, bought, and sold? And Bitcoin is practical for the great use-case... as 'money' especially in the form of micropayments and internet-native 402 payments.

Purchase everything online and pay for everything online, found countless businesses based in cyberspace and pay everything in Bitcoin - I think that is a very real future and the central banks of the world don't particularly like it.

The volatility aside, why would anyone want to earn paper money, when they can earn Bitcoin instead especially now that they can practically use it for micropayments and pay daily expenses