2026-01-18 12:23:36

Bitcoin has already surged to $97,000, but if you look closely at this rally, the main driver has been institutional big orders through ETFs. Retail investors? They’ve hardly participated. Behind this phenomenon lies a significant signal: cryptocurrencies are shifting from a retail game to an institutional game, and this trend is irreversible.

Institutions are bringing in billions, tens of billions of dollars, but what they want is not just an investment asset. They need a complete financial infrastructure—one that is secure, compliant, and capable of handling complex financial operations. This becomes a challenge.

Traditional public chains like Ethereum seem mature, but they have hard flaws for institutions: transactions are too transparent (strategies can be exposed), Gas fees are unstable (costs are unpredictable), transaction finality is ambiguous (risks are hard to control). These may seem like minor issues, but in institutional finance, they are fatal flaws.

Because of this gap, projects like DUSK have found their niche. From the start, DUSK understood what it needed to do: provide underlying support for institutional-grade financial applications. The entire tech stack is designed around this requirement.

How exactly? DUSK’s privacy transaction layer ensures that large trades do not reveal strategies in advance. Its consensus mechanism guarantees final settlement and controllable costs. More importantly, all trading activities can meet financial audit requirements. In other words, DUSK is like a dark pool prepared for professional financial institutions—combining the security and compliance framework of traditional finance with the efficiency and programmability of blockchain.

This is why, while everyone is still speculating on Bitcoin prices, the truly knowledgeable funds are already looking at infrastructure layers like DUSK. The larger the scale of institutional capital inflow and the longer the duration, the more they need a "home" that can accommodate their business complexity. DUSK has long secured this position—an institutional-grade blockchain financial ecosystem is about to explode, and it has already secured its spot.

BTC-2,06%

DUSK41,77%

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MetaReckt

· 01-18 12:53

Retail investors are still watching the BTC price, while institutions have already quietly laid out infrastructure. The gap is not an ordinary one.

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TrustMeBro

· 01-18 12:53

Retail investors are still chasing Bitcoin at 97k, while institutions have already quietly built their infrastructure... The gap is really huge. ETF big buy orders are driving the market, but we are kept in the dark about the crypto hype, hilarious. Privacy transaction layer is indeed a pain point; traditional chains simply can't meet the auditing requirements of institutions. Positioning itself within the institutional financial ecosystem sounds convincing, but whether DUSK can truly handle this wave of traffic remains to be seen. Wait, that analogy about dark pools... Isn't that just a "compliant version of over-the-counter trading"? It doesn't seem that simple.

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WhaleMistaker

· 01-18 12:50

Retail investors are about to get cut again in this wave, still watching Bitcoin price fluctuations, while institutions have already been laying the groundwork. So, transparency is good for retail investors, but it becomes a burden for institutions. The contrast is really striking. DUSK is indeed interesting, but I still need to see if it can actually hold those big funds. It looks good on paper. Honestly, I just want to know if these dark pools tailored for institutions will end up becoming a new tool for cutting leeks again; history always repeats itself. However, the underlying infrastructure logic is indeed solid. As long as institutions keep pouring in, these projects will have a say, I bet on that.

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HashRatePhilosopher

· 01-18 12:32

Retail investors are still chasing 97,000, but institutions have long since set their sights on infrastructure. The gap is really huge. Institutional finance emphasizes compliance and controllability. The Ethereum model indeed doesn't work well for them. The dark pool logic like DUSK really hits the pain point—privacy plus audit compliance is what institutions want. Large funds never lack investment options; what they need is reliable infrastructure. This logic makes sense. Wait, can DUSK truly fully solve the Gas and finality issues, or is it just another marketing story? This wave of market activity is definitely driven by institutions. Retail investors are just the bagholders being pulled higher. Opportunities in underlying infrastructure are indeed deeper than just trading spot assets, but whether they can survive the next cycle is another matter. Traditional finance entering blockchain is most afraid of uncertainty. No wonder they need to find a "dark pool" to use. It looks like the institutional game has officially begun. Retail investors are about to change roles.

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