Bangladesh, Sept. 17 -- Bitcoin was supposed to do more than create a new asset class. For many of its earliest advocates, it was meant to change the relationship between individuals, money and the state.

Seventeen years after Bitcoin's launch, that ambition looks increasingly complicated.

Bitcoin has grown from an obscure experiment discussed on internet forums into a global financial asset worth trillions of dollars, traded across exchanges around the world and increasingly embraced by institutional investors. Yet one of the original promises of cryptocurrency - allowing individuals to exchange value directly, without relying on traditional financial intermediaries - remains constrained by regulation.

That contradiction raises an un...