Has Bitcoin been captured by politics and institutions?

Sixteen years after its launch, Bitcoin is no longer just a cypherpunk experiment or an anti-establishment asset. In 2025, it’s increasingly rubbing shoulders with politicians, institutions, and Wall Street titans.

That shift was on full display at the recent Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, where Cointelegraph was on the ground to capture the mood.

In this week’s episode of Byte-Sized Insight, Cointelegraph’s Gareth Jenkinson explores whether politics and institutions have captured Bitcoin (BTC) or whether it has simply become too important to ignore.