I think a factor in the high price is that people who thought it would be safer to wait until an ETF was available to get in because of institutional protection, their lack of tech knowledge, whatever, have realised they don't get that luxury and have starting buying directly. This is a bit of a silk road v2 situation IMO, everyone thought the value was due to X and then X vanishes and it retains the value = collect jaw drop and then FOMO.
Yup. Hardware wallets are selling out fast.
Why use an ETF when you can hodl your bitcoins at home on a Trezor? (If you can find one to buy).
^paper wallets a thing of the past? :\
Someone who was hoping to click his brokerage site button to buy bitcoin ETF is not going to bother with figuring out how to work paper wallets ... but some of them might take the plunge with an ezy pezy hardware wallet. The demand is still there, it is just very latent, lazy and waiting for convenience. But some of that latent ETF demand will make it to market ... say 5-10% conservatively of the expected, what was it?, $300 million in the first week they were spouting about.
