CryptoQuant chief says Bitcoin became speculative pirate finance

Bitcoin and the wider crypto market have drifted away from their original cypherpunk roots and transformed into little more than speculative “pirate finance,” according to Ki Young Ju, CEO of on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant.

In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on October 20, 2025, Ju said that crypto “used to be pirate fintech,” suggesting that early adoption was driven by innovation at the edge of the financial system. Now, he argues, the market lacks the ideological foundations that once defined it.

The cypherpunk ethos – built around decentralization, cryptographic sovereignty, and resistance to financial intermediaries – was central to Bitcoin’s early identity. Jack Dorsey recently reignited that narrative by asserting that “Bitcoin is not crypto,” adding in subsequent remarks that Bitcoin no longer embodies the decentralized or encrypted ideals often associated with the broader crypto space. 

Ju reinforced his view, suggesting that the industry has shifted toward profit-seeking behavior driven by trading, leverage, and speculative yield farming rather than technological or ideological advancement.

Over the past few years, traditional finance companies such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and major Wall Street firms have launched regulated Bitcoin funds, crypto ETFs, and tokenized products. Meanwhile, centralized exchanges continue to dominate trading activity, and institutional capital plays a larger role in price movements compared to early grassroots communities.

Concerns about centralization in Bitcoin have been raised repeatedly by high-profile figures. One widely discussed criticism came as early as 2021 from Elon Musk, who noted in a past public statement that a small number of large mining companies control the majority of Bitcoin’s hash rate, casting doubt on how decentralized the network truly is.  

Bitcoin’s operational topology is beginning to resemble a quasi-oligopoly rather than a globally diffused peer-to-peer network, said Jeroen Blokland back in the day. Hashrate concentration and institutional dominance suggest that a few state-aligned jurisdictions now anchor Bitcoin’s governance more through economic gravity than protocol design.  

Despite this, Bitcoin’s market presence continues to grow, and new narratives - such as artificial intelligence integration, real-world asset tokenization, and institutional-grade infrastructure - are shaping the next stage of the industry.

Whether the cypherpunk ethos can coexist with large-scale financialization remains an open question, as industry leaders increasingly debate crypto’s philosophical identity against its expanding commercial footprint.