A Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is heading to Wall Street, if market forecasts are to be believed, and this will be great for the crypto industry.
This is not as universally believed as recent price rallies suggest.
From CryptoQuant analysts he said. The approval of such a product, which investors have been waiting for for more than 10 years, means that institutions will flood the space with cash, which in turn will lead to a rocket in the price of Bitcoin.
This may or may not be true. Others, like Hayden Hughes, founder of social business platform Alpha Impact, who spoke Bloomberg, They have given a position The approval of the Bitcoin ETF is already priced in, which means the price is unlikely to sustain any big gains. But even if Bitcoin's market cap and value go through the roof and the entire crypto industry expands, will it be a good thing? Privacy-focused bitcoiners say such a product goes against everything bitcoin stands for.
Formerly experts at Nym Technologies and Wasabi Wallet They spoke Decrypt Wall Street's interest in cryptocurrency could lead governments to clamp down on crypto users with restrictions, fines or taxes.
The reason is that lawmakers are already cracking down on the crypto industry and are focused on anti-money laundering (AML) procedures – as seen by major crypto brands like Coinbase and Binance.
Others have argued that with Wall Street's titans entering the market, cryptocurrency is becoming more centralized and related to traditional stocks. Bitcoiners have been waiting and hoping for years for the coin to happen Decoupling from securities.
said Bob Bodley, CEO of Ordinals Marketplace Bionics. Decrypt The Bitcoin ETF could undermine Bitcoin's first censorship-resistant promise.
The stress on Bitcoin ETFs is that we have so much Bitcoin locked up in ETFs that we now have so much Bitcoin tied to stocks that we've ruined the original vision of Bitcoin where we have so much Bitcoin in ETFs. Buy and sell like stocks and in most cases we will have ownership of a central custodian, he said.
He was physically referring to Bitcoin's quality of allowing anyone to use the network and make transactions without being blocked by a government or authority. The idea is that anyone who can download Bitcoin wallet software, run a node and complete transactions can do so seamlessly. And normally That's hard to stop..
But if Bitcoin ETFs and centralized custodians on Wall Street become the standard and perhaps only known way for people to gain exposure to Bitcoin, users may eventually be banned from the network.
“As long as you're self-sustaining, you can be a unique individual participant in the Bitcoin network,” Bodley added. “If Bitcoin ETFs are the only legal way to acquire Bitcoin and self-holding is illegal (like gold was in the 70s), then this undermines the core value proposition of Bitcoin as people cannot legally hold their assets themselves.
Bitcoin Sparrow Wallet developer Craig Raw says privacy and profit don't always go hand in hand. Cypherpunks, activists seeking social change through cryptographic tools, want people to have personal interactions. According to Rew, the institutions take care of the bottom line.
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“The key to cypherpunks is that individuals can continue to find privacy in the devices, regardless of institutional adoption,” he explained. Such tools are already available in Bitcoin and the broader crypto world. There are apps, Like CoinJoinWhat people use to spoof Bitcoin transactions.
There are already tensions between privacy advocates in the crypto world and the authorities: the federal last year It is forbidden If US citizens use the Tornado Cash app, a ‘Coin Melter' which allows users to make private transactions on the Ethereum network; America's largest crypto exchange Coinbase at the time He was beaten The government has a reason to do this If funded Charges against the Treasury Department.
The idea that traditional finance is not a good fit to enter the world of crypto is not new.
Caitlin Long, CEO of Custodia Bank he said. In the year While such a product could be good for the industry in 2018, it could be bad for the crypto world's finances, where there has been a lot of liquidity from traders looking to get into the market for quick, short-term profits.
This could prompt long-term holders to “take it easy by keeping their coins out of the financial system.”
Analysts now say—for better or worse—it's only a matter of time before the Bitcoin ETF hits Wall Street. Even JP Morgan said it could happen. Before Christmas. It is the product. It can lead A ton of money has flooded into the space – but will bitcoin retain its original features?
