Nothing to see, move along...

At this point there are hundreds if not thousands of posts, tweets and articles that outline all the reasons why cryptocurrencies are here to stay. Of course, along with all the positive sentiment, depending on where within the market cycle we are in at the moment, the negativity or the FUD is never completely missing and just gets louder or softer to blend with the mood. I've often pondered on the fight that will surely come, the one of establishment vs the common man, and discovering this graphic today has added plenty of clarity to the picture.

The Digital Currency Group is not just a player in the cryptocurrency space, but possibly the behemoth we never imagined would ever exist. You see, they own 81 companies and have shares or interests in plenty more. The exchanges most people use, the apps that are becoming more and more common everyday are all part of their chessboard and most of us are probably not aware of their moves.

Now, I must say I'm entirely defining some sort of ill intent here, I would not know such a thing. However, the idea most of us held of participating of an ecosystem that empowered the "common man" seems to be more unicornian that anything else.

This is not to say that I've lost my faith on cryptocurrencies or anything of the sort, but learning these things, wetting my feet in the pool of reality, really puts things into perspective. For one, I can't claim to support free markets and not accept the fact that the free market has been the fertile ground for such powerful player to emerge. However, of what I am very much convinced at the moment, is that manipulation is most definitely real.

Let's put some things into perspective, and remove the veil of pleasant naivety. If there is a company, a gigantic behemoth of the size of the Digital Currency Group, who is partially owned by MasterCard at that, we can certainly places bets on two fronts:

_{1)Cryptocurrencies are not going anywhere and will continue to grow, they are the future
2)Manipulation has always been part of the strategy.}

The swings of the market then without a doubt are literally a mechanism of funneling retail investors, dumb money as they are often referred to, towards the big guys the ones that have always owned the building. This is not to say swings should not happen, or that there is even a system that lacks them, because of course that would not be accurate, but the irrationality of the markets is not irrational at all, but more designed to seem this way.

Looking at this graph and seeing Coindesk on there really paints the only picture I need to see. I mean, the number one website for crypto news in the world is owned by the conglomerate that is "building solutions" for the cryptocurrency world. Of course I have no way of proving it, but can we really say that conflict of interest does not play a role here? I certainly cannot.

The recent listings of Coinbase also make a little more sense, and of course it could all be happenstance, but It certainly does not look to be the case, not even a little bit. Again, It could all be coincidence, it could all be the decision of a board of directors that is truly digging for the best options out there, studying the market for demand and liquidity, but seeing Decentraland on there really made me scratch my head a lot.

For those who are not familiar with the term Ownership Stake, which I'm sure might not be too obvious. It simply means that even though they do not own all the shares of the company, they call the shots by owning a lot of them.

By all means, this is not FUD, not at all. I'm telling you crypto is not going anywhere, and basically proving it to you, showing you how this whole idea that BTC is going to zero is as ridiculous as it gets. However, now that you know, now that you see who is already here, Are you going to let them shake you off? I certainly won't.