Is This Still Adoption?

[CryptoYar]

[...]

Though there is this so-called company growth but where Bitcoin controls almost 60 percent of market, recent few weeks have seen the so-called Extreme Fear among buyers as price changes show on the event of world fight or ETF need changes.
I believe that Bitcoin is in Golden Cage where it has become very costly and widely taken, yet it has lost part of its first free energy as it turns into main part of world money system. Though tech remains same, story is now being led by people with the biggest wallets and so current path of Bitcoin seems to be giving in of private spirit to country plan value.

[Hamza2424]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

Charles has already mentioned not all crypto is decentralized, which means most of it is centralized, but if you are talking about bitcoin or the ones that are decentralized. Then, bro, you still got wrong idea that they are getting centralized now. Institutional money means the tokens are going to be more volatile than ever but it does not mean they can demand whatever they want, like if they want they can shut down Bitcoin, or any other decentralized coin. But you are referring to the whole market in here, so that means besides btc and some other good decentralized coins, you can say that institutions if gets involved they can manipulate them easily or maybe demand changes.

But if the platform is really decentralized, they can't do a thing.

Some platforms are semi-decentralized so you can't count them.

[dezoel]

Though there is this so-called company growth but where Bitcoin controls almost 60 percent of market, recent few weeks have seen the so-called Extreme Fear among buyers as price changes show on the event of world fight or ETF need changes.
I believe that Bitcoin is in Golden Cage where it has become very costly and widely taken, yet it has lost part of its first free energy as it turns into main part of world money system. Though tech remains same, story is now being led by people with the biggest wallets and so current path of Bitcoin seems to be giving in of private spirit to country plan value.

I would say that is what we needed to grow this much. Without those Manhattan suit wearers, we would not be able to reach 125k with just the money that we have on the corner of our world, we would not be rich enough to get it trillions.

Whereas they have a fund with 14+ trillion dollars in it for Blackrock and those guys did our ETF for bitcoin, that's not bad and put in a lot of money from other rich people. We needed that and we got it, I think it's a good thing that we got it so we can keep growing.

[Josefjix]

If institutional money drives the market…

This simply means institutional organizations are adopting Bitcoin.

If institutional organizations are buying into bitcoins, they certainly have the intention to hodl longer than many individual investors.

Because they hold long and will likely keep buying into the market, scarcity that will lead to an increase in value will follow.

Institutional investment is never selling anytime soon, they keep stocking more quantity into the market making the demand seeming very effective, that's a good reason to join their train if you could.

But the effect when they start selling is unknown to everyone, when such could happen, no one knows.

[TheUltraElite]

Institutions want to make money too, you cant blame them for investing in bitcoin. They have their own share of bitcoin with which they will try to move the market and make money from the movements.

You as an individual will have to understand that your stack of bitcoin represents your power and have to increase that amount of money over time. So when the price drops, they will buy and so you will also buy.

But they are not controlling the supply of bitcoin or imposing rules on them, it remains decentralized.

[avp2306]

Institutions want to make money too, you cant blame them for investing in bitcoin. They have their own share of bitcoin with which they will try to move the market and make money from the movements.

You as an individual will have to understand that your stack of bitcoin represents your power and have to increase that amount of money over time. So when the price drops, they will buy and so you will also buy.

But they are not controlling the supply of bitcoin or imposing rules on them, it remains decentralized.

Correct since its really clear that those institutions are here also to make money on Bitcoin, they use are also their holdings as their advantage on situations happening in the market. But even though those situation happens on which those institution gain lots of volume still Bitcoin remains decentralized whatever actions they do.

There none of them can control the demand and supply also rules. That's why its good not to get panic if they do certain things that can manipulate people's mind, since this is clear indication that they are just playing on the mind of people and try to get profit with fear and hype that they can spread.

Even if we have small funds to use, we can also do those actions they do like consistently buying then do DCA or buy at the dip. What really matter is we understand how everything works and stay discipline to increase our chance to succeed.

[alani123]

It's adoption but not the adoption early bitcoiners dreamed of.

If I can spend my bitcoin to buy basic goods and then the farmer can buy fertilizer and water directly with bitcoin there can be a circular economy that doesn't need FIAT. But this never materialized.

Instead we got wallstreet to build with its existing tools on bitcoin. MSTR is capitalizing on that craze right now but there's seriously no guarantee that this will go on forever. The on-chain usage of BTC is quite indicative of little interest in actuality so if we are to equate real usage with value than BTC/USD prices are more likely to fall than not and then things could spiral.

[Hazink]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

Institutions are investing what they can and their funds are helping push the market a bit higher. That does not remove bitcoin from being decentralised down to being centralized. Their impact ends only on the coins they purchase and hold. They can't control what's in others hands wallet it don't work that way with their high volume to some extent they could also manipulate the market, but that's not same thing as centralisation.

[kawetsriyanto]

Institutions want to make money too, you cant blame them for investing in bitcoin. They have their own share of bitcoin with which they will try to move the market and make money from the movements.

Yep. Investors buy Bitcoin because they demand for profits. If there is no chance of profits, they may be not interested in Bitcoin. Sure, we can't blame them because of their own purposes on Bitcoin. We even must thank to them because they want to put their money into Bitcoin market.

You as an individual will have to understand that your stack of bitcoin represents your power and have to increase that amount of money over time. So when the price drops, they will buy and so you will also buy.

I don't really get your point, however everyone knows there is a cycle in Bitcoin market. People buy when it is in downtrend, then they sell the Bitcoin in uptrend. Mostly, we know it as 4 years cycle.

But they are not controlling the supply of bitcoin or imposing rules on them, it remains decentralized.

No one who controls the Bitcoin supply, it has been fixed. Even Satoshi doesn't control it now.
So far, Bitcoin is decentralized even if its price can be influenced by some factors. What makes us be a bit worried that big players try to manipulate the Bitcoin price movement in the market with spreading FUDs.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

Well, I think this depend on what means through which the institutions are buying or selling, like you will agree with me, the institutions we are always talking about are or consists of humans like you and me, they people also have a right to buy and sell bitcoin like any other individual out there..

Its the means through which they are buying and selling their bitcoin that should tell if we are moving towards heavy centralization of bitcoin or whether it's decentralized nature is still being intact..
On my comments on some other threads on this very same board, I emphasized on how important it is for us to return to the original design of bitcoin's trading which is the peer to peer type of trading, whether this can work now or not, I really dont know, but this is one of the only ways decentralisation can return back to bitcoin.

[Inior]

Institutional investment is never selling anytime soon, they keep stocking more quantity into the market making the demand seeming very effective, that's a good reason to join their train if you could.

But the effect when they start selling is unknown to everyone, when such could happen, no one knows.

You sure did give a nice point there. Institutions accumulate enough percentages of an asset but we shouldn't forget the reason why they do that, they purpose of acquiring assets is for profit making so if they feel they have achieved their target they might end up selling but they barely do that on a regular basis. And this is also the reason I'm getting a bit skeptical with the holding bitcoin for long term like a decade. MicroStrategy are ongoingly accumulating more bitcoin each time they have the opportunity to and it scares me because their actions seems like they want to become the highest holder with the largest equity of bitcoin and that means manipulation would become really easy for them.

[imthegreat]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

After document verification became mandatory on all cryptocurrency exchanges, we lost our anonymity. Centralization is still alive in the cryptocurrency world, except for stablecoins, which are not considered cryptocurrency. They are centralized digital assets that can be easily frozen by a small group of people who control the USDT. This goes against the principles of decentralization and freedom that were fundamental to the creation of cryptocurrencies.
In terms of Bitcoin, pseudo-anonymity is maintained, but as for anonymous coins like Monero, they are still alive today.

[YellowSwap]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

This bothers me as well, like the government will ever allow full decentralisation in every corner? I don't think so, every institutional companies and groups are all government puppets, they will prefer to be under centralised control because of the offers that comes with it.

Bitcoin is the only thing they really can't control, it is decentralised in nature but cann still be used in a centralised way, which to me feels like a win still to those institutions.

This gives room to manipulation, fud and misleading, I doubt that decentralisation will work, they won't allow it and Bitcoin sadly will be the last innovation to ever be truly decentralised.

[Ishicryptic]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

You need to understand that it's not all the cryptocurrencies that are centralized whereby your coins is prone to second and third party interferences and control, a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is very different from them because it is truly decentralized. If you hold your Bitcoin anywhere else but a none custodial wallet then it is open to interferences so the choice is yours. If you want true decentralization which gives you privacy and freedom you should do the needful and it is self custody of your Bitcoin. We cannot totally run away from centralization because we are living in countries that have government but with Bitcoin we can limit their interferences.

[Glowy]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

Bitcoin is still decentralized from a protocol point of view, but in terms of price, it can be manipulated not easily by governments and institutions if they make the same move due to geographical incidents like the current one, or the tariff wars etc.

Then the whole market will move at once too. But it does not mean Bitcoin is becoming centralized. It can't be controlled by anyone, no one can change the total supply, or anything from the blockchain.

To be honest, it is indeed turning into something that I don't like and that is the involvement of Trump, he liked to manipulate, but due to him, market recovered and now it is down this path.

The big wigs are big influencers of the market, the safe part is bitcoin being decntralized. If you point these changes to Trump well, everyone one wants what they want right? He is a big-wig playing it his way, thats on periodt!

[uchegod-21]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

People tend to attribute too much power to institutions and individuals assumed to be very powerful. Institutional investors don't control the Bitcoin network; they do not have the power to do that. When you say institutional money drives the market, yes, it happens, but only by manipulating the price of Bitcoin. Decentralization means you, I, and the institutions control the bitcoins we own individually; institutions can't restrict me from accessing my bitcoins.

Are we slowly moving away from decentralization? Yes, and that is not because of institutional investors, but because Bitcoiners now prefer convenience over privacy and security, using centralized platforms that control their keys.

[Glowy]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

People tend to attribute too much power to institutions and individuals assumed to be very powerful. Institutional investors don't control the Bitcoin network; they do not have the power to do that. When you say institutional money drives the market, yes, it happens, but only by manipulating the price of Bitcoin. Decentralization means you, I, and the institutions control the bitcoins we own individually; institutions can't restrict me from accessing my bitcoins.

Are we slowly moving away from decentralization? Yes, and that is not because of institutional investors, but because Bitcoiners now prefer convenience over privacy and security, using centralized platforms that control their keys.

In clear terms you have said the institutions don't influence your access to your BTC which is true but they are part of the users who want convenience. Or are there specific comfort seekers? Because to the best of my knowledge there is no clarity on who seeks this convenience mentioned.

[Smack That Ace]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

Institutions are investing what they can and their funds are helping push the market a bit higher. That does not remove bitcoin from being decentralised down to being centralized. Their impact ends only on the coins they purchase and hold. They can't control what's in others hands wallet it don't work that way with their high volume to some extent they could also manipulate the market, but that's not same thing as centralisation.

In other word, they can manipulate the price or control it, but they will never be able to make Bitcoin centralized. Because the decentralized nature of Bitcoin is determined by its network and protocol, not its price.

Bitcoin is still Bitcoin, and has even become more decentralized than in its early days because the network is now larger, has more participants and is more distributed. It could be said that Bitcoin is in a phase of higher decentralization than ever before.

[legiteum]

In other word, they can manipulate the price or control it, but they will never be able to make Bitcoin centralized. Because the decentralized nature of Bitcoin is determined by its network and protocol, not its price.

Bitcoin is still Bitcoin, and has even become more decentralized than in its early days because the network is now larger, has more participants and is more distributed. It could be said that Bitcoin is in a phase of higher decentralization than ever before.

Exactly: it depends on how you look at it, and what is important to you.

If your interest in the very arcane, technical details of how the Bitcoin network actually works (~1% of Bitcoin holders), then it's more decentralized now.

If your interest is profiting from Bitcoin's price appreciation (~99% of Bitcoin holders), then it's de facto centralized today.

[suzanne5223]

If institutional money drives the market…
Is crypto still decentralised in practice?
Or we are watching it slowly move from decentralisation?

When you said crypto, you're technically talking about all the digital currencies we have in the entire market.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin is the only real decentralized cryptocurrency we have in the entire market.
If you're talking about BTC, we can consider the money as adoption since it drives the market, and Bitcoin can still be decentralized, but for BTC to maintain its decentralization, we have a role to play, one of the most important of which is the prioritization of self custody.