Ever since the release of the "Level Pack XXL", the price of Magic Beans started plummeting.
After an initial rise towards 25 coins (Northisle), it has since declined by 80% - to the point where now Beans are getting traded below 5 coins, occasionally even below 1:1 for Granite, an all-time low.
The end of this decline is not in sight, as high level players are constantly doing Ali Baba adventures, which give beans as "junk loot": Doing only Ali Baba adventures after reaching Level 54, a player will accumulate well over 200000 beans before reaching Level 60.
By the time a player hit Level 70, they will probably hit a good couple millions of beans.
I wouldn't be amazed if a player would earn over 10 million beans by the time they hit Max Level.
Unfortunately, there is not much to do with beans: Buy the Sector Licenses, get the Generals and Quartermasters - a couple of Magnificent Residences and you're set. If you're wasteful, you may need about 300k beans to plaster your island and archipelago. But then - what?
Do we need more/better things to do with Beans, lest they become as useless as Saltpeter once was?
What could that be?