The long-awaited launch of bitcoin spot ETFs in the US this yr helped engender a wave of optimism that the worth of the well-known cryptocurrency would rapidly admire. The logic was easy: With an simple, low-cost avenue now accessible for normal traders to buy bitcoin, the supply-demand curve would shift and the worth of every bitcoin would rise.
However the response has been considerably combined. Whereas the worth of bitcoin has almost doubled up to now yr to round $43,000 right this moment, it has largely traded sideways in current weeks. Was the hype and ensuing response one other instance of the previous Wall Road maxim, “Purchase the rumor, promote the information”?
To be trustworthy, we’re checking the flows into and out of spot bitcoin ETFs extra incessantly than we need to admit, however we nonetheless wished to be taught extra. So, we requested TechCrunch readers in the event that they meant to purchase bitcoin by way of one of many new spot ETFs, whether or not they owned bitcoin elsewhere, and what influence they anticipated these new investing autos to have on its worth and on crypto.
A number of dozen replies from founders and operators later, we discovered some fascinating tendencies. A few quarter of respondents to our little, unscientific survey reported that they don’t intend to purchase bitcoin by way of an ETF, and already personal bitcoin elsewhere. The place are people holding their cash? In every single place, it seems: Self-custody, Coinbase, KuCoin, all kinds of places. Slightly impressively, Dara Khan, the top of promoting at First rate DAO’s bitcoin, mentioned her pockets ended up on the “backside of the ocean, misplaced it in a boating accident :(.”