Radio Yerevan: Is Crypto the Biggest Wealth Transfer in History?Answer: Yes. But not in the direction people hope.
In the last decade, crypto marketing has repeated one grand promise:
“This is the biggest wealth transfer in human history!”
And in classic Radio Yerevan fashion, this statement is both true and misleading.
Yes — a historic wealth transfer took place.
No — it did not empower the average investor.
Instead, it efficiently moved wealth from retail… back to the very entities retail thought it was escaping from.
Let’s break it down: structured, clear, and with just the right amount of irony.
1. The Myth: A Decentralized Financial Uprising
The early crypto narrative was simple and beautiful:
- The people would reclaim financial independence.
- The system would decentralize power.
- Wealth would flow from institutions to individuals.
The idea was inspiring — almost revolutionary.
Reality check: Revolutions are expensive.
And someone has to pay the bill.
In crypto’s case, the average investor volunteered enthusiastically.
2. The Mechanism: How the Transfer Actually Happened
To call crypto a wealth transfer is not an exaggeration.
The numbers speak loudly:
Total market cap peaked above $3+ trillion.
Most of the profit was extracted by:
- VCs who bought early,
- teams with massive token allocations,
- exchanges capturing fees on every trade,
- and whales who mastered liquidity cycles.
Retail investors, meanwhile, contributed:
- capital,
- liquidity,
- hope,
- hype
- and a remarkable tolerance for drawdowns.
It was, in essence, the perfect economic loop:
money flowed from millions → to a concentrated few → exactly like in traditional finance, only faster and with better memes.
3. The Irony: A Centralized Outcome From a Decentralized Dream
Here lies the great contradiction:
Crypto promised decentralization. Tokenomics delivered centralization.
When 5 wallets hold 60% of a token’s supply, you don’t need conspiracy theories — you need a calculator.
The “revolution” looked more like:
- Decentralized marketing
- Centralized ownership
- Retail-funded exits
- And a financial system where “freedom” was defined by unlock schedules and vesting cliffs
But packaged correctly, even a dump can look like innovation.
4. Why Retail Was Doomed From the Start
Not because people are unintelligent, but because:
- No one reads tokenomics.
- Unlock calendars sound boring.
- Supply distribution charts kill the romance.
- Liquidity mechanics are not as exciting as „next 100x gem”.
- And hype travels faster than math.
In a speculative market, psychology beats fundamentals until the moment fundamentals matter again — usually when it's too late.
5. The Real Wealth Transfer: From “Us” to “Them”
The slogan said:
“Crypto will redistribute wealth to the people!”
The chart said:
“Thank you for your liquidity, dear people.”
The actual transfer looked like this:
- Retail bought the story.
- Institutions created the tokens.
- Retail bought the bags.
- Institutions sold the bags.
- Retail called it a correction.
- Institutions called it a cycle.
Everyone had a term for it.
Only one group had consistent profits from it.
6. So, Was It the Biggest Wealth Transfer in History?
Yes.
But not because it made the average investor rich.
It was the biggest because:
- no previous financial system mobilized so many people
- so quickly
- with so little due diligence
- to transfer so much capital
- to so few beneficiaries
- under the banner of liberation.
It wasn’t a scam.
It wasn’t a conspiracy.
It was simply financial physics meeting human psychology.
7. The Lesson: Crypto Isn’t the Problem — Expectations Are
- Blockchain remains a brilliant invention.
- Tokenization has real use cases.
- DeFi is a groundbreaking paradigm.
- And so on
The issue wasn’t the technology.
It was the narrative that convinced people that buying a token was equivalent to buying financial freedom.
Real freedom comes from:
- understanding liquidity,
- reading tokenomics,
- respecting supply dynamics,
- and asking the only question that matters:
“If I’m buying… who is selling?”
In markets — especially crypto — this question is worth more than any airdrop.
8. Final Radio Yerevan Clarification
Question: Will the next crypto cycle finally deliver the wealth transfer to the masses?
Answer: In principle, yes.
In practice… only if the masses stop donating liquidity.
