it's also quite possible - if not likely - that large financial institutions will be able to control and manipulate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the same exact same way that they currently manuiplate stocks, commodities, and other traditional assets.

The reason why these manipulations are possible with other assets is that other assets don't actually gain much (if any value) over the years. Bitcoin is doubling in value every year, so shorting it long-term is out of the question. The epic short-squeezes that result from trying to short Bitcoin would be the death of any institution that attempted it. We don't need help from Reddit for that.

Shorts also require collateral. You normally can't borrow large quantities of stock or crypto on reputation alone. Bitcoin is turning into the best collateral in the world, so again, shorting it is silly... in fact (ironically) it may be used as the collateral to short everything else. That would make more sense going forward.

Great post, as I think all of us could use more lessons in traditional finance and the process of the options market. These things sound simple and then when you look at how they actually work it's pretty wild.