Are we rebuilding the middlemen Bitcoin was meant to remove?

Bitcoin was created around the idea of allowing people to transact directly, without relying on trusted third parties.

But today, exchanges, custodians, payment companies, and ETFs sit between many people and their Bitcoin.

They’re useful and clearly helping with adoption. But I wonder if, in making Bitcoin easier to use, we’re also rebuilding some of the intermediary system that Bitcoin was trying to move away from.

Maybe that’s not necessarily a contradiction. Bitcoin still gives people the choice: use an intermediary for convenience, or hold and transact directly through self-custody.

That tension is what I find interesting.