Binance and Bitfinex have control over the one thing that matters most about Bitcoin --- the price. They exercise this control in the same way a central bank does --- they have access to an unlimited supply of "stablecoins" they can mint at will and use to buy/sell bitcoin as they see fit.
What matters the most is that nobody can take my coins from my wallet if I don't want them to and that I can send the coins to anybody I want, however much I want and whenever I want.
Really? So it doesn't matter that the bitcoins in your wallet are now worth about 1/4 of what they were a few months ago?
Where did all that value go? My guess is a lot of it is sitting in fiat bank accounts someplace under the control of Binance and Bitfinex.
You've been robbed and you don't even know it.
> Before any crypto transaction who do the buyer and seller both turn to for a "fair market value" ? A centralized exchange.
That's the simplest way today - but definitely not a requirement, and doesn't make it centralized in any way. The centralized exchanges don't set the price (if anything, they suggest it) and they can't control transactions nor wallets. Who doesn't know the private key can't do anything with the funds on a wallet.
> The crypto market is controlled by companies like FTX. This still holds true even if you deal directly with these companies.
The "crypto market" - maybe. But they don't control the cryptocurrencies themselves in any way. This is like saying that because NASDAQ controls the $MSFT market they control Microsoft - of course they don't.