Bitcoin ETF Hopes Are Higher Than Ever & Bitcoin Likes It!

The world’s largest asset management company BlackRock has filed an application with the SEC to list a spot Bitcoin ETF. Immediately after, several other asset managers followed suit and filed for their own Bitcoin ETFs. 

That’s a big deal!

As a result, the price of Bitcoin went only went in one direction: up! 🚀

For most of the third week in June, the Bitcoin price reached new highs and even touched the $31,150 mark — a mark we haven’t seen in over a year. 

Now, why is this important? 

Sure, having a higher Bitcoin price is nice for HODLers, but more importantly, this news shows interest by Wall Street and, from the looks of it, a united front willing to bet on Bitcoin. 

They realized the potential of this fantastic technology and wanted to offer it securely and nicely to clients or other institutions alike. 

BlackRock (& Other Wall Street Giants) File for a Bitcoin ETF 📈

It was inevitable. At one point, Bitcoin’s signal would have to be so strong that even Wall Street can’t ignore it, which is what you see now. 

Whether it be BlackRock, WisdomTree, Valkyrie Investments, Fidelity, Citadel, Charles Schwab, or Invesco, all of them have filled out an application for a Bitcoin Spot ETF, are in the process of doing so, or have publicly stated that they’re building custody solutions for clients who want exposure to Bitcoin. 

This is the crucial part. 

Most people on planet Earth can buy and hold Bitcoin. A fully regulated or public company can theoretically do the same thing, but they have many more hurdles to go through. 

MicroStrategy, for example, has to audit its Bitcoin holdings every few months and choose Coinbase as a custody partner because they’re publicly traded. 

There are a lot of steps to go through simply to hold an asset on your balance sheet. It’s not a secret that MicroStrategy and Michael Saylor, especially, are Bitcoin bulls. But practically speaking, very few companies would do this. Instead, they’re looking for a regulated solution where they still have exposure, but the hassle surrounding everything is much smaller. 

This is where an ETF comes into play. 

Therefore, the recent news is great for the Bitcoin HODLer and the industry as a whole. For the first time in a while, if all of these applications go through, financial institutions on Wall Street would have an easy way to get exposure to the spot price of Bitcoin. 

The fate of the Bitcoin ETF future now lies in the hand of the SEC. They’re the ones approving the applications. If you are worried because they refused so many Bitcoin Spot ETFs in the past, look at BlackRock’s ETF application record. Ever since BlackRock came into existence, they were denied exactly one ETF application and were approved 575 times.

Prime Trust Teaches Us (Once Again) About the Importance of Self-Custodying Your Bitcoin 🔐

Not your keys, not your coins. We’ve heard this over and over again in the past, and I think we’ll listen to it over and over again in the future as well. 

This time, we saw another big player in the digital asset ecosystem go bust: Prime Trust. 

Prime Trust was one of the biggest technology-driven trust companies in America and the backbone of many on-ramps by offering token and fiat custody, funds processing, anti-money laundering checks, know-your-customer compliance, and transaction technology services. 

The Prime Trust LLC was registered and regulated in Nevada and, until this news broke, looked at as one of the best examples of crypto custody services. The state of Nevada filed a court petition to place the company in receivership. 

The court petition revealed that the company owes more than $82 million and lost access to what it describes as “legacy” wallets holding cryptocurrency in 2021. 

Compared to other companies going bust these past months, Prime Trust’s hole in their balance sheet seems small, but the more problematic aspect of this story was the lack of accountability. 

Why didn’t anyone react sooner if this hole was discovered in 2021? 

Just because a company is regulated and has all the necessary licenses doesn’t mean it can’t do a lousy job. Unfortunately, this means many companies and investors must find better solutions. 

Maybe this time, they’ll learn to stop handing over ownership of their assets to a custodian and do the right thing and own their keys. It’s hard at first, but once you get into the groove and know how things work, it’s the best protection against fatal events like this one.

Bitcoin is Global: How I Used Bitcoin in Columbia (When My Bank Cards Were Acting Up) 🇨🇴

Whenever you’re on Bitcoin Twitter, you often read or hear stories of how people in the Global South can survive and build businesses thanks to Bitcoin. You read this news and think that it’s nice, but you usually never think beyond that. 

The real game changer is when you experience this in person, which is what I did with my holiday in Columbia. I saw street vendors selling water in the horrible heat for Bitcoin. 

Instead of carrying around a big stash of cash, which inflates away at the speed of light, they had Bitcoin wallets on their phones. It’s not like they accept it as a marketing gag, but they save and use Bitcoin because they know how worthless their local currency is. 

Thank god for Bitcoin, they told me. 

 It was great seeing Bitcoin in action, being used as a currency in the way that Satoshi Nakamoto (probably) envisioned it would be one day. 

In the West, were are privileged when it comes to having a functioning financial infrastructure and relatively stable currencies. However, that’s not the case everywhere, and it’s exactly in those places where Bitcoin is most powerful. 

I spoke more about my experiences in Columbia and Bitcoin usage in emerging markets on a recent episode of the Proof of Words Podcast. You can check it out here! 

Your stacker in sats, 

Patrick Lowry