I’ve been looking at where the money is going in crypto, and I keep coming back to one question.. when exactly did we start treating Wall Street as our saviour? Every time some massive fund buys Bitcoin, everyone celebrates. But what exactly are we celebrating? Weren’t we supposed to be building an alternative to the very financial system we now seem desperate to impress? Look at what’s happening. According to Wintermute, institutions accounted for 72% of spot trading volume on its OTC desk in the first half of 2026. Chainalysis also found something interesting. Smaller Bitcoin transfers below $10,000 were flowing out of the US, while transfers above $10m. were bringing Bitcoin in. In fact, that larger category alone brought in 53,200 BTC. Now, these are cross border flows, so I wouldn’t interpret that as retail everywhere selling Bitcoin. But surely the growing institutional influence is worth questioning? US spot Bitcoin ETFs now hold over $100b. in Bitcoin. I have nothing against institutions buying BTC. Bitcoin was supposed to be open to everyone, including Wall Street. But here’s what I don’t understand.. Why have we convinced ourselves that institutional money buying Bitcoin somehow means that money will eventually flow into hundreds of altcoins and make retail rich? Why would it? These institutions aren’t here to rescue our portfolios. They’re here to make money. They can buy Bitcoin, hold it through regulated funds, collect fees and build entire businesses around it without ever needing to touch the tokens retail has been holding for years. And that’s what bothers me. We spent over a decade talking about decentralisation, financial freedom and removing the middlemen. Yet here we are, celebrating the same financial institutions becoming some of the biggest players in this industry. Maybe Wall Street didn’t need to defeat crypto after all. Maybe it just needed to make crypto another part of its business. I keep hearing that institutional adoption means crypto is finally winning. But winning for whom? I’m genuinely curious.. did crypto lose its soul when the Bitcoin ETFs arrived, or did we lose the plot when we started treating Wall Street’s approval as the ultimate measure of success? What’s your take?