Topic: Andreas Antonopoulos's opinion on ETF (Read 125 times)

The market is far more manipulable if it is small and narrow. If there is more money and more actors, it is actually less easy to move arbitrarily.

You can probably say no to the ETF, that would mean there are two parallel markets, the market like it has always been, and the new born one with the ETF. That is of course if we consider there is no additional "regulations" applied in the future by the most influent governments.

Well it sounds like fiat for crypto if you ask me. If there is no reserve of the actual bitcoin. If there is, then that's at least good. So my question is, if you have your own coin that you manage, can you say no to the ETF?

Hi folks,

For those who don't know Antonopoulos, he's been supporting Bitcoin for a while now, you'll find more about him on Twitter for instance > https://twitter.com/aantonop

I started this topic because I lately read an article in my mother language ( here ). I am not sure it was posted here, but basically Antonopoulos says that an ETF is inevitable but will do damage to Bitcoin in the long term.

As I was writing above, Andreas Antonopoulos has been a strong supporter of Bitcoin. A few lines on this topic to sum up his opinion...
For him, the ETF is imminent but will do damage. He explains about the impact that such an inflow of funds will make on the long term, which should do more harm than good according to him. He defines an ETF as a fund managed by an individual who creates a financial tool that can be traded in the same way as a stock, but which, strictly speaking is not one. Actually, this fund will buy and hold Bitcoin, then sell shares from its Bitcoin stockpile, based on the market price. This system will allow anyone to buy shares, same way as stocks through their usual brokers, and trade them in the market.

But in this case, investors do not hold Bitcoin at any time and do not really own what they buy. What they own will be shares, whose price is aligned with Bitcoin's price. The Bitcoins are in the hands of the fund manager. So in this situation, everything revolves around speculation on the price of Bitcoin (well not that different to Bitcoin without an ETF   but... ).

So we should expect short term gains, but long term damage. Antonopoulos is obviously aware of the direct impact that an ETF should have on Bitcoin price: the market will open up and be more accessible for a large number of new investors. However, this type of situation exposes the market to manipulations by the market makers, as it may have been the case in the past.
If we consider the price alone, then the ETF should be good news. This is actually what most people seem to believe already, that the ETF is potentially seen as great news. However, Antonopoulos believes it would be a terrible event for cryptos in general, it would bring centralization in the ecosystem, which is totally against the original values ​​of Bitcoin.

Investors will not own what they hold in Bitcoin, and will have no role to play in the decisions that will be made in the ecosystem. Power will be centralized around the fund managing all the investors going through the Bitcoin ETF. In the long run there is a risk of losing the democratization of the ecosystem as it is today. The ETF violates the founding principle of cryptocurrencies, where each user does not operate via an intermediary, but on his own, and has direct control over his money and his private keys.

We can then imagine two types of investors in the future: those who have the technological knowledge, who hold their Bitcoins and can use it, and those who will depend on intermediaries.

Any constructive opinions welcome.