and

pnc bank just started selling bitcoin to their clients. and it isn't through some sketchy app or a offshore crypto exchange that might disappear tomorrow. it is right there in their regular banking platform, powered by coinbase. the seventh-largest bank in america looked at the most disruptive technology in finance and they didn't see an enemy. they saw a partner.

for decades, the narrative was always bitcoin versus the banks. it was us versus them. you had to pick a side or you werent a true believer. but it turns out the winners in this space werent the ones choosing... they were the ones combining. i co-founded india's first bitcoin exchange back in 2013 and i lived through this war firsthand. we survived a central bank ban that should have killed us. we fought for years and eventually won a landmark case in the supreme court. through all that, we served over two million people who just wanted a better way to save their wealth.

the loudest voices in the room kept telling me i had to pick a lane. they said it was bitcoin or banks. disruption or compliance. revolution or evolution. i refused to accept that. here is what i learned from being in the trenches: the people who actually change industries don't spend their time burning bridges. they spend their time building them. when we started our first bitcoin meetups in bangalore, we didn't hide in a basement. we held them at the leela palace which is a six-star hotel. we didn't do that because we had money to burn—we did it because bankers and lawyers and skeptics don't show up to basements. they show up to places they trust.

if you are only talking to people who already agree with you, then you aren't evangelizing. you are just having a meeting. you are shouting into an echo chamber and wondering why the world isn't changing faster. pnc didnt suddenly become a crypto company and coinbase didn't become a legacy bank. they each just brought what they were best at to the table. that isn't a compromise. it is leverage. it is the word "and" in action.

the world is full of people waiting to be shown the way. they are curious but they are also cautious. they need a bridge. when you stop fighting and start building, you realize the other side was just waiting for an invitation. the question isn't bitcoin or blockchain. the question is... who have you written off that is actually ready to listen?