From day 1 it's been in the interest of the wealthy elite to use crypto. Bitcoin is Peter Thiel's wet dream for a post-government anarchocapitalist currency.

It literally can't function without tons of servers running as part of a network all over the world. People are only going to spend money running servers if they get something back for it. If there's money to be made off it, that means the people who already have the most money will be the biggest winners.

"Disruptive" technologies like this aren't a threat to class relations in themselves, only to individual actors within the ruling class. Crypto is a way to bypass existing financial regulations and allows some new individuals to rise from petit bourge to haute bourgeoisie, but doesn't threaten the finance industry in itself. Just as battery electric vehicles make established car manufacturers struggle to adapt to a changing market, but do not change anything about the way our society understands mobility.

No I think they just told themselves they'd do one last grift before they collapse the economy. Besides, housing bubbles are so 2008.