Viewpoint: Cryptocurrency is no longer "weird," which has become the problem

BlockBeats News, February 3rd, Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst stated that as Wall Street and traditional financial institutions accelerate their entry into the crypto field, the industry is facing the risk of diluting its core principles. She pointed out that the crypto industry was not initially meant to simply provide a "backend upgrade" for traditional finance, but rather to attempt to reshape money, platforms, and power structures, emphasizing individual sovereignty, collective ownership, and individual agency.

Ernst recounted that when Gnosis was founded in 2015, crypto was still seen as a "weird" fringe technology, and it was precisely this "weirdness" that drove a rethinking of the essence of the financial system and power distribution. However, today, with Robinhood launching blockchain stocks, major U.S. banks hiring stablecoin engineers, and governments promoting the integration of traditional finance and crypto, crypto is gradually becoming mainstream.

She believes that as the regulatory environment improves and institutional funds flow in, entrepreneurs should be more vigilant against value drift, avoiding crypto becoming a mere appendage of the existing financial system and losing the initial pursuit of autonomy and decentralization.