If they didn't destroy Bitcoin is not because they never wanted to, but because they can't.
They can't?
1: Spend the necessary capital to 51% attack the network. Destroy it.
Good luck creating another bitcoin that people will trust after that.
2: Wire $20M-$50M on various bitcoin exchanges and short it down to single digits and beyond in one go totally destroying confidence.
Currently there are around $15M in bids (lol) on all major exchanges combined and plenty of longs that can be completely margin called ($23M+ on bitfinex alone for example), it should be fairly easy.
Not only $20M-$50M is nothing for them if they are inclined in "killing" BTC, they would also make a very good profit on top of it.
They
could destroy bitcoin is they wanted to. Thing is, they probably DGAF.
for someone who claims not to be a newbie troll, you sure argue like it.
these issues have been discussed ad nauseum since day 1 2009. i won't bother with the 51% attack since it hasn't happened and probably never will. too much effort for lazy fiat artists who would rather manipulate than actually work. while they could try to short it down using the few exchanges that do allow it, they would be taking huge risk in leaving such large amounts on exchanges presumably unfriendly to their cause and overseas. audits will help prevent this along with the risk of these centralized exchanges being hacked or shut down like Evo walking off with all their funds. if that ever happened, lots of heads would roll at these 3 letter agencies or banks. there's no printing of BTC to bail them out either.