Conformism as the Price of Victory: How Cryptocurrency Emerged from Underground into Mainstream

Any idea that rises against the system will eventually become part of it. Cryptocurrency is a vivid example of this historical paradox. What started as a decentralized challenge to traditional financial architecture has gradually transformed into a legitimate asset class, served by the same banks and funds that it was initially meant to bypass. This process of turning revolution into institution is a deep embodiment of conformity, where radical ideals give way to systemic integration.

Philosopher Hannah Arendt once noted that a revolutionary who comes to power inevitably becomes a conservative the next day. History repeatedly confirms this pattern. Rock and roll, once seen as a dangerous challenge to social order, has become a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. The internet, proclaiming principles of openness and anarchy, is now concentrated in the hands of five corporate giants. Cryptocurrency follows the same trajectory, and this is not a failure — it is a law of nature.

From Revolution to System: Why Cryptocurrency Ideals Inevitablely Succumb to Conformity

In 2016, when I first encountered cryptography and blockchain, the energy in this space was entirely different. Cryptocurrency carried an anti-establishment spirit that the internet had already lost. While the internet, controlled by FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google), evolved into a centralized corporate machine, the crypto movement maintained its original idealism: a decentralized network protecting privacy from government and corporate surveillance; sovereign money immune to manipulation by the same financial elites responsible for the 2008 crisis; digital freedom where transactions cannot be halted or frozen.

Around these principles gathered an unusual coalition: libertarians, technologists, activists, and crypto enthusiasts often portrayed in mainstream media as underground hooligans. Being involved in cryptocurrency back then was provocative. We believed we were rewriting the rules of finance at the protocol level, that true power could be distributed through code. In that atmosphere, it seemed we could genuinely change the world.

When Rebellion Becomes a Brand: The Evolution of Symbols in the Crypto Movement

External signs of this transformation are visible in the symbols themselves. The laser-eyed meme (🔥👀) emerged as an underground joke, a signal of faith that Bitcoin would reach $100,000 — at the time, an outright madness. Today, that goal has not only been achieved but surpassed. And the meme, once a symbol of marginality, has been worn by public political figures, including presidents of various countries.

Neutralization has occurred. Cryptocurrency no longer shocks anyone. It has transformed from a countercultural phenomenon into mainstream, completing a full cycle of conformity: from marginality to legitimacy, from challenge to complementarity.

Just ten years ago, the pride we felt in being our own bank — managing our private keys, storing seed phrases, controlling assets in hot wallets — was a rare privilege. Today, most newcomers get their “exposure” to Bitcoin through spot ETFs from BlackRock and other giants, often unaware of what a seed phrase even is. Convenience has replaced autonomy. This is a logical evolution, but it marks the death of the original rebellious spirit.

The Will of the Old Internet, the Legacy of Cryptocurrency: How History Repeats

David Bowie predicted this in a 1999 interview. He said the internet seemed to him a truly revolutionary phenomenon — chaotic, nihilistic, full of potential for real change. Rock and roll, in his words, lost that power. Once dazzling with audacity and inevitability, it became accepted mass culture, turning into a currency without rebellion — a carrier of information, but not of protest.

The same will happen to cryptocurrency. Its progression from underground to the halls of power at the Davos Forum 2026 symbolizes the end of this cycle of conformity. Whereas in previous years the crypto community held unofficial side events, now it will take center stage in the global economy’s main arena.

Institutional Takeover, Decentralization Fading: The New Reality of 2026

Signs of this transformation are everywhere. JPMorgan, BlackRock, and Morgan Stanley now openly recommend crypto assets as a legitimate, regulated asset class, alongside gold and stocks. CEOs of major banks speak of Bitcoin not as a threat but as an existential necessity. Public companies are increasingly adding crypto assets to their balance sheets.

The scale of privatization is impressive. TP ICAP, a global broker handling about $200 trillion annually in commodities and financial derivatives, plans to route even 1% of its volume through crypto markets. Such volumes will completely eclipse any notions of retail self-management or microeconomic utility.

Stablecoins are already conducting transactions surpassing major payment networks. Tokenized real-world assets (RWA) are moving from experimental crypto community zones into the core infrastructure of capital markets — from treasury management of large corporations to hedge fund settlements. DeFi, once the domain of blockchain specialists, is becoming more understandable and accessible to traditional asset managers, corporate treasuries, and family offices.

From Marginal Profitability to Regulation: How the System Digest the Revolution

This shift would be impossible without regulatory approval. The passage of the GENIUS Act in the US and the implementation of the MiCA regulation in Europe eliminated the gray areas where the crypto movement once thrived. Every loophole is closed. Every parameter defined. Conformity has found its rules.

Cryptocurrency has not replaced the traditional financial system and never will. But it rewrote its logic from within, forcing established players to innovate or fall behind. Institutions can now adopt these new primitives, regulate them, integrate them into their systems, but they cannot abolish them. The influence of cryptocurrency has become irreversible, not because it remains revolutionary, but because it has become too significant for the system.

Was It a Victory or a Defeat?

Purists, remaining true to the original ideals, argue that the true goal was to create a parallel economic reality, entirely independent of the traditional financial world. In their view, cryptocurrency is merely attached to the existing system as an appendage, lacking real revolutionary essence.

They may be right. But history is rarely kind to maximalists. Most of the revolutionary impulse inevitably normalizes. Kant was right: extreme radicalism breeds extreme conservatism. Today, cryptocurrency may express rebellion through memes and hashtags, but it can no longer be rebellion itself.

What remains? The realization that conformity is not always a sign of defeat. Sometimes, it’s the price any idea pays for the chance to truly change the world. Cryptocurrency has left primitives in the system that cannot be removed: blockchain, smart contracts, tokenization, decentralized protocols. These tools have forever rewritten the rules of the financial game.

But this is a familiar arc of history. After every revolution comes a period of stabilization. Ideals become orthodoxy. The provocative becomes routine. Cryptocurrency has traveled from the periphery to the center, from shock to norm, from denial to acceptance.

The next revolutionaries will seek new boundaries. And once again, history will cycle.