Has Bitcoin quietly become something different?

I’ve been around long enough to remember when the focus was almost entirely on self custody and sovereignty. Running a node. Holding your own keys. Opting out of the system.

That felt like the point.

Now most of the headlines are about ETFs, institutional flows, and large custodians holding significant supply. It seems like a lot of people just want exposure in a brokerage account instead of managing seed phrases themselves.

I totally get it, it’s easier, safer for many, and probably necessary for broader adoption.

But I sometimes wonder: if Bitcoin ends up primarily held and custodied by large financial institutions, integrated into traditional markets, is that still the same movement it started as?

Maybe this is just maturation. Maybe sovereignty at scale looks different than we imagined.

Not trying to be negative, genuinely curious how others think about this.