Wall Street, as well as earlier stock exchanges, were designed to provide a liquid, transparent market for buyers and seller s of financial products. As they grew, and were dominated by large institutional investors, where the liquidity remained, but much transparency was lost.
The Great Financial Crisis of 2008 (GFC) brought the weaknesses of the modern financial system to to forefront of many people's minds. Satoshi Nakamoto responded by developing bitcoin and blockchain ledger technology. Many others were troubled by government bailouts of the big banks and looked to bitcoin as a way to bring transparency and honesty to financial institutions.
This is especially important in Wall Street, as the blockchain shifts power from the institution, including governments, to the individual. The blockchain also enables peer-to-peer transactions that remove much of the value Wall Street believes it provides to traders. While Wall Street has been very interested in adopting blockchain technology, it also represents a fundamental challenge to Wall Street's business model.
The video below is an interesting discussion between Caitlin Long of Symbiont and Nick Gillespie of ReasonTV talking about how the GFC changed Ms. Long's thinking about the financial markets, how they need to be improved and the threat bitcoin poses to traditional financial institutions.
