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

**February 3 – Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst warned that as Wall Street and traditional financial firms ramp up their entry into crypto, the industry risks diluting its core principles.** She noted crypto was never intended to be just a "back-end upgrade" for traditional finance (TradFi) — but rather to reshape money, platforms, and power structures, with a focus on individual sovereignty, collective ownership, and personal agency. Ernst recalled that when Gnosis launched in 2015, crypto was still viewed as a "weird" fringe technology. That "weirdness," she said, spurred a rethinking of the financial system’s essence and power distribution. Today, however, crypto is moving mainstream: Robinhood is rolling out blockchain-based stocks, major U.S. banks are hiring stablecoin engineers, and governments are pushing TradFi-crypto integration. As the regulatory landscape improves and institutional capital pours in, Ernst urged entrepreneurs to stay vigilant against value drift. They should avoid letting crypto become a mere appendage of the existing financial system, she added, and preserve its original goals of autonomy and decentralization.