Crypto was conceived as a way to dismantle traditional finance. Yet, over time, Wall Street flipped the script, rebuilding crypto around institutional infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and compliant capital flows.

In its early days, banks dismissed crypto as speculative excess, not as a foundation for financial systems. That skepticism became public during 2022 when JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon labeled crypto a “decentralized Ponzi scheme,” while BlackRock’s Larry Fink questioned Bitcoin’s long-term viability.

Yet institutions moved differently. Strategy accumulated Bitcoin aggressively while Fidelity expanded custody and blockchain infrastructure.

Institutions eventually separated blockchain technology from crypto’s…