You might be surprised,
but I am still bullish on crypto prices and on the long-term future of Bitcoin and open networks, assuming the world gets through this insane geopolitical period with only a black eye.
What I am no longer bullish on is the culture around it.
Bitcoin did not fail. Crypto did not fail.
In many ways, it already won.
It survived long enough to be absorbed by the world it once tried to bypass. ETFs, treasuries, banks, politicians, funds, regulators, custodians, public companies and nation-state conversations.
That is adoption.
Not the romantic version from the old forums, but the real one.
Adoption often just means adaptation.
The world takes what works, translates it into its own language, and then people bring all their old behaviour with them.
And that is where it got ugly.
Crypto became real life, only faster, less regulated, less mature and with fewer consequences.
The greed, the status games, the manipulation, the fake expertise, the tribalism, the worship of rich people, the abuse of newcomers, the financial desperation, the social climbing, the lies people tell themselves when money is involved.
All of it exists outside crypto too.
Crypto just removed the filters, put it on-chain, added leverage, made it global, and let it run 24/7.
It is not just “bad actors.”
It is human behaviour without enough friction, without enough accountability, and often without enough shame.
In the old world, most people would hesitate before openly promoting garbage to strangers for personal gain.
Here they call it community building, paid post, engagement, alpha, education, or being early.
I still remember when this was mostly about distrust.
Distrust in banks, bailouts, money printers, gatekeepers, and people who could freeze, dilute, censor or confiscate with a signature.
Bitcoin made sense because it was brutally simple.
21 million. Verify, do not trust. Hold your own keys.
No CEO to flatter, no insider group to decode.
Today the price can go higher while the culture gets worse.
That is the uncomfortable part I need to accept.
Markets do not reward morality...nah..they reward liquidity, access, timing, leverage and narrative.
Bitcoin can become a larger global asset while the surrounding industry behaves like an unregulated casino built by teenagers with god complexes.
I am bullish on Bitcoin.
I am bullish on open networks. I am bullish on the idea that permissionless money and censorship-resistant infrastructure will matter even more in a world drifting into debt, surveillance, capital controls and political instability.
But I am not going to pretend the culture is healthy.
Crypto got adopted, and in the process it did not just inherit the old system’s financial habits.
It inherited people’s worst social instincts too.
Faster, louder, less accountable and far more shameless.
And those who came in with fewer opportunities will, in 99% of cases, remain at the bottom.
