Phew, it’d be hard to figure if the SEC’s approval of bitcoin ETFs says more about the corrupt dysfunction of DC, Wall Street, or Tech. Good thing you don’t have to choose. It’s a shamefully pathetic indictment of all three. The FT writes,
“While we approved the listing and trading of certain spot bitcoin ETP shares today, we did not approve or endorse bitcoin,” he ( SEC Chair Gary Gensler) said, telling investors to “remain cautious about the myriad risks associated with bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto”.
Boy the unmitigated bullshit flowing from DC these day. All the usual suspects are there — “ETF sponsors ranging from established players such as BlackRock, Invesco and Fidelity to digitally focused newcomers including Grayscale and Ark Invest.”
Best is this, in a laugh out loud sense,
“In a departure from normal ETF practice, the funds will use cash to create and redeem new shares rather than in-kind transactions involving their underlying assets — bitcoin, in this case.”
Well, after all there’s only ever going to be 21 million bitcoins, over 90% of them already in existence, so suppose it’d be difficult to swap them around directly and create…. uhmm…. errr….. value. Better to use dollars, even if the whole original idea behind bitcoin was to replace the dollar.
A couple days ago, an FT Op/ED wrote,
The problem with bitcoin isn’t that there hasn’t been a way to speculate on it. The problem with bitcoin is that it’s all about speculation. We don’t need new ways to speculate on the cryptocurrency. What we need, if bitcoin is going to be the saviour its advocates want us to think it is, is a use for bitcoin.
Why replace the dollar when you can use bitcoin to fleece away other suckers’ dollars — these days purpose enough.
Lord, you might as well just close down the SEC. Old Joe Kennedy’s rolling in his grave.
It's another layer of leverage. I really do need to re-issue "Inflated"