🧐 Crypto × Power: When a Rebellious Industry Actively Jumps into the Swamp | Is the End of Idealism Always a Willing Submission?

The cover of this week's Economist magazine is thought-provoking—

"When Cryptocurrency Meets the Washington Swamp."

In one sentence, it reveals the deepest irony of the crypto industry today.

A technology that was originally born out of distrust in power has now willingly handed its fate over to that very power;

A system that once promised to break the interests of the established order is now being written into the family ledger of the White House.

Under the loudest slogan of "decentralization," the crypto industry has quietly completed its return to centralization: it is no longer a tool of resistance against the system but has become a new pawn in the game of the establishment.

Are we really building a fairer financial order? Or are we merely using the guise of technology to replicate the power logic of the old world, but this time on the blockchain?

History has told us countless times that people once thought the end of a revolution was victory, but reality often tells us: the end of a revolution is being co-opted.

Once, the dream of "decentralization" was not the goal but a means to prevent us from being co-opted by power again. Unfortunately, the current crypto industry is rushing headlong into the very things it once despised.

When Satoshi Nakamoto wrote, "The fundamental problem is the central bank's abuse of the power to issue currency" in 2009, no one imagined that years later, the "children of Bitcoin" would be scrambling for the president's attention in the Washington swamp, trading around ballots, power, stablecoins, and meme coins.

This is not House of Cards. This is happening in reality.

This article is thought-provoking, and I will first show you the core content of this piece—

1️⃣ From Utopia to "Swamp Assets"—

Introduction: After the departure of Gary Gensler, the head of the SEC, the market has repeatedly expressed sentiments like: We have never missed that old man so much!

The great technology of blockchain, which once promised technological neutrality, has now become a propaganda tool for a certain political party.

Behind the TRUMP meme coin is Trump himself, his family business WLF, and the qualification to "dine with the president";

The USD1 stablecoin has risen from zero to the seventh globally, not backed by technological advantages, but by "Trump's endorsement";

Numerous lawsuits abruptly ceased after the change of power, and regulation shifted from high pressure to leniency, simply because the leadership changed.

This is not a free market; this is the privilege of the powerful.

When you find that the once most radical anti-authoritarian industry begins to enthusiastically embrace Washington's crony capitalism, it indicates that crypto is no longer a revolution; it is a business.

And business never speaks of ideals, only of returns.

2️⃣ The Cost of Taking Sides—

The industry bets that as long as Trump wins, they can regain "regulatory freedom."

But the cost is:

Crypto legislation has become a bargaining chip for politicians;

The Democratic camp quickly grew resentful of the industry;

A bipartisan stablecoin bill that was originally expected to pass was aborted due to "presidential dinners + TRUMP coins";

The regulatory jurisdiction dispute between the SEC and CFTC has become even harder to push forward due to obvious conflicts of interest.

What was intended to be a fight for a compliant path has turned into a "vassal of power rent-seeking."

Once the wind changes, everything could go to zero.

This statement carries significant weight!

3️⃣ The "Crypto Bubble" in the Swamp—

In the Economist's cover article, there is a particularly striking detail:

"The TRUMP coins held by the Trump family are valued at nearly $2 billion, almost equivalent to the total value of all their real estate, golf courses, and clubs."

Meme coins have replaced real estate as the main asset of the president's wealth; isn't that ironic?

We are no longer trading tokens; we are trading symbols of power and tokens of influence.

This is not web3. This is web0: a naked game of the powerful.

4️⃣ What Does This Industry Really Want?

The Economist believes that what we need is clear, rational, and technology-oriented regulation; not the president's "endorsement," nor the pendulum swings of election cycles;

If the ultimate ideal of DeFi is to resist the moral hazards of centralized finance, then why do we have to depend on "the greatest uncertainty"—

The will of the president himself?

Decentralization does not mean the absence of a center, but that any center can be replaced. Yet now this industry, in its quest for the favor of a particular center, has given away all "replaceability."

5️⃣ Conclusion: Has the Revolution Really Failed?

I think the content of the Economist is excellent, raising very important questions and political factors regarding the direction of digital currency;

The critique is indeed profound; it bursts the bubble of the industry's narcissism and reveals the huge gap between the ideal of decentralization and the reality of power structures.

However, there are also some flaws that I believe are not adequately addressed;

We live in human society, not a utopia; where there are people, there are conflicts, and where there are people, there are interests. The process of development and progress of all things must go through the manipulation of these invisible hands;

At the same time, it also underestimates two things:

First, Crypto is not American; it is global.

In Nigeria, it fights against financial discrimination; in Argentina, it is a haven from inflation; in Singapore and Europe, it is embedded in institutional compliance frameworks; even in the U.S., it is more than just K Street lobbying and presidential dinners.

Second, Crypto is not supported by meme coins; its core remains structural financial reconstruction.

Stablecoins are becoming the on-chain transmission layer for the dollar, RWA is redefining the "ownership and liquidity" of capital, and AI × Crypto is building value interfaces between machines and humans. Bitcoin continues to prove its logic of resistance to censorship and devaluation over time, and DeFi is still designing "trustless" financial models.

So the question is not "Has the revolution failed?" but rather:

Is there anyone willing to return to that blank sheet of paper and continue drawing?

Revolution does not happen overnight, and great technologies never emerge from pure laboratories. They often begin with anger, get mired in compromise, thrive through alienation, and mature through reflection.

And now is the time for the industry to reflect.

If the past decade was a journey of crypto from utopia to Wall Street, then the next decade should be a journey of breaking free from "co-optation" and truly embedding itself in the underlying structures of the world.

Ultimately, the power of decentralization is not to reject the center but to build a world that no one can monopolize.

Everything will happen smoothly, and everything that should happen will happen, regardless of anyone's will. Anyone attempting to block the wheels of history from rolling forward will ultimately be crushed!

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