While the market cheers for the exit of early Bitcoin whales, viewing it as a "market maturity" signal, I seem to see a familiar script from past capital markets playing out again: a carefully packaged power transfer is quietly playing the old game under the guise of "mainstreaming".
Extended reading: He sold out! 80,000 Bitcoin ancient whale "fully liquidated" cashing out 9 billion, Galaxy congratulates the largest customer in history
Seeing news headlines shouting "Old era guardians are being replaced by new era titans", Wall Street institutions and ETFs, like hungry sharks, are devouring the chips thrown out by early believers, with crypto users and Wall Street making various strange analyses claiming this is the arrival of a new era.
On the surface, it's a win-win feast where OG Bitcoiners achieved incredible financial freedom, and Bitcoin obtained a ticket into the global financial system, with prices seemingly having more solid support. However, when I pierce through this veil woven by liquidity and institutionalization, what I see is not a simple asset handover, but a profound value split, with a conflict between the Bitcoin network and commercial packaging unfolding.
This seemingly healthy replacement is imperceptibly giving birth to an asset more scarce than Bitcoin itself and closer to its original ideal - "Native Bitcoin". Wall Street's embrace might not be a coronation, but a sweet poison.
Bitcoin's Dual Universe: "Financial Bitcoin" vs "Native Bitcoin"
We first establish a core understanding: Bitcoin's financialization, the "100,000 USD in 20xx" everyone talks about, does not mean all Bitcoins will have the same appreciation price in the future, but is a describable blurry vision. The actual value hierarchy behind it may experience splits at different levels:
The first split universe is "Institutional BTC", these Bitcoins exist under Wall Street's game rules, held in ETF custodial wallets, traded on compliant exchanges, with every flow strictly reviewed by KYC and AML. Their on-chain history is not only clearly traceable, like financial statements spread under sunlight, but institutions also know customer details like the back of their hand.
For institutional investors, this type of Bitcoin is perfect - safe, compliant, and highly liquid. Its value is mainly reflected in market price, a digitized commodity integrated into the regulatory framework.
Actually, institutionalized Bitcoin is continuously being packaged through financial derivatives and gradually detaching from the native network. Institutional-level Bitcoin has reached the extreme of the centralized exchange phenomenon since Bitcoin's creation, with most transactions being replaced by off-chain exchanges. The Bitcoin native network seems to have become a path limited to "whales and institutions" trading. As the centralized network is gradually hollowed out, this might not be a healthy indicator.
The second split universe is "Native BTC", which I believe is where true scarcity lies. "Native" refers to "virgin Bitcoins" just mined from miners, or "pure Bitcoins" with extremely simple transaction histories, never associated with sanctioned addresses or high-risk platforms. They are like pristine, uncirculated banknotes without historical baggage. Their value is not just market price, but more importantly their "attribute value" - absolute privacy, strong anti-censorship ability, and the potential to flow freely outside global regulatory networks.
OTC Market Verification
This value layering is not alarmist; it has long been a reality in high-end over-the-counter (OTC) markets. In fact, institutional buyers are willing to pay a "purity premium" to purchase Bitcoins with clear source proof to ensure regulatory compliance. They hire on-chain analysis companies like Chainalysis to conduct "asset due diligence", ensuring they don't buy "tainted assets" from hacker attacks or Dark Web markets.
This is like the art market's logic. Two Picasso paintings might differ in value based on their provenance and historical ownership.
The deeper crisis behind this value layering points to the fundamental monetary attribute of fungibility's loss. As blockchain analysis technology advances, every Bitcoin's history can be tracked, creating a dangerous precedent where Bitcoins are given "identities" by regulations and KYC.
When a Bitcoin has contacted an address marked as illegal, it might be labeled "tainted". Compliant exchanges can refuse to accept such Bitcoin, and users might find their accounts frozen. In this scenario, not all Bitcoins are equal.
The biggest cost of Bitcoin's mainstream financial acceptance is sacrificing its "memorylessness". As it becomes more like a trackable digital asset than a free currency, its long-term value ceiling might be limited.
Market maturity? Wall Street abandons Bitcoin's spirit to play an "asset reserve game".
This analogy fundamentally misses the point. The value of a house depends on its location, condition, and market supply and demand, and does not change based on whether its previous owner was a banker or an artist. However, Bitcoin is different; its value is closely tied to its transaction history and flow path. Wall Street's "new buyers" are not simply taking over; they bring their own set of rules. They demand custody, require audits, and demand strict background checks on counterparties. They are "formatting" Bitcoin with the financial order they are familiar with. These records, transaction paths, accumulated user data, and financial instrumentalization handled by these institutions, along with complex documents to comply with various national regulations, have long since de-originated Bitcoin.
Wall Street is making original Bitcoin rare
In other words, Bitcoin is being plundered and reshaped by Wall Street. This massive machine is transforming Bitcoin from a decentralized, permissionless value transfer tool into a "digital gold" that is agency-mediated by centralized institutions and requires multiple layers of permission to access.
The emergence of ETFs, while lowering investment barriers, has also locked massive amounts of Bitcoin into custodial wallets, removing them from free circulation and further reducing the decentralized, borderless value of the Bitcoin network. According to data, over 94.75% of Bitcoin has been mined, and ETFs and institutions are accelerating accumulation, causing an unprecedented contraction in the market's freely tradable "clean" Bitcoin supply.
Therefore, recent sales by OG Bitcoiners may be more than just profit-taking. Can we boldly speculate: Is this a carefully considered strategic divergence? Some whales may have seen the demise of Bitcoin's decentralization and are taking the opportunity to profit, letting institutions take over and drive up the market price of original Bitcoin. Early whales may still retain many of the most valuable, hard-to-domesticate "original Bitcoins", but the vision of Bitcoin becoming a global payment network seems to be drifting further away.
Two futures: Do you want domesticated gold or a key to freedom?
Ultimately, we will see a divided future. Under Bitcoin's price tag will hide two completely different assets. One is "Financial Bitcoin", hitched to the traditional financial chariot, enjoying institutional dividends but also inheriting all its constraints. Its value will be determined by Wall Street's capital flows and regulatory agencies' moods.
The other is "Original Bitcoin", returning to Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision - a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. As new coin production decreases and large amounts of Bitcoin are "locked" by the financial system, this uncontaminated Bitcoin with absolute privacy and sovereignty will become the true "limited edition luxury" of the crypto world. Its price may gradually decouple from "Financial Bitcoin", forming a unique "pure premium".
Wall Street's embrace has brought unprecedented attention and liquidity to Bitcoin, but may also be hollowing out its most revolutionary core. While everyone celebrates the soaring price, perhaps we should step back and calmly consider: What did we originally want - a digital gold recognized by the financial system, or a key that can open the door to absolute freedom?
If the spirit of decentralization continues to decline, the market may soon tell us that the prices of these two could be worlds apart.
