Crypto exchanges have pushed the narrative that users need to get in fast because crypto is, somehow “the future.” This was especially the case back in 2021 when the price of crypto was rising rapidly. Big name actors pushed the “line go up” narrative such as The Crypto.com Superbowl ad with the tagline “fortune favors the brave” as just one example. Now more investors are trying to withdraw their funds from Crypto.com over concerns that its reserves are mostly made up of junk coins. FTX’s ad featuring Larry David making the case that you don’t want to “miss out” on the future that is decentralized finance worked to engender support, up until last week when the entire exchange blew up.
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So what about all the talk about the need to break away from the power of big banks? Well, the economists at the Bank of International Settlements stated it pretty plainly.
“Users [are] being drawn to Bitcoin by rising prices—rather than a dislike for traditional banks, the search for a store of value or distrust in public institutions,” the researchers noted.
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If most crypto investors were really concerned about decentralization over their hopes of making line go up, there would be an even greater pushback about Ethereum moving from less centralized proof-of-work to completely centralized proof-of-stake. As David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain, put it in a recent blog, “Decentralization is always fake.”