Is Crypto Still About Financial Freedom? How Institutions Took Over the Market | by Gaze All Over | The Capital | Mar, 2025

Bitcoin was born out of the 2008 financial crisis, created as a way to break free from centralized control.

It was meant to give power back to the people, allowing anyone to hold and transfer wealth without the oversight of banks or governments.

Fast forward to today, and institutions are now running the show. The very entities Bitcoin aimed to escape — Wall Street, hedge funds, and major asset managers — are now deeply embedded in the crypto space. They influence price action, dictate market sentiment, and ultimately decide when the market moves up or down.

This raises a pressing question:

Has crypto lost its original purpose?

And if so, can we ever get it back?

For years, traditional finance rejected Bitcoin. Governments dismissed it as a tool for criminals. Banks refused to acknowledge it as a real asset. Hedge funds called it a bubble.

Then something changed.

Institutions realized they could profit from it.