Cryptocurrencies were born out of a clear idea: eliminating the need to trust intermediaries. A technology capable of enabling direct, transparent and verifiable transactions without relying on banks or financial institutions. However, the market built around this idea has ended up reproducing precisely what it was supposed to overcome. Millions of people entrust their assets to centralised platforms, financial intermediaries and private companies whose security and solvency they cannot control. Decentralisation has become a business that depends on centralised structures.

The problem is that a market based primarily on the expectation that others will continue buying needs to constantly maintain confidence and attract new participants. It is not enough for the technology to work. There must be growing demand, a perception of security and a promise of appreciation. When that confidence disappears, prices fall, liquidity dries up and structures that once seemed solid begin to reveal their weaknesses. We do not know when this will happen or which parts of the market will survive, but building a financial system on such a fundamental contradiction has consequences. The technology may endure. The economic model built around it has no such guarantee.