Bitcoin ETFs: Even worse for crypto than central exchanges

cointelegraph.com:

Recent weeks have seen a surge in interest from traditional finance for crypto-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs). After the Securities and Exchange Commission took issue with its initial filing, BlackRock submitted a fresh application for a Bitcoin ETF on July 3. A week earlier, Fidelity led a crop of investment firms in lodging applications with the SEC for Bitcoin-based ETFs. Meanwhile, HSBC has become the first bank to offer Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs to customers in Hong Kong.

In the context of Bitcoin, it is often the seemingly positive news that is harmful over the longer term; and vice versa, short-term negative news often serves to strengthen the ongoing case for Bitcoin. A good example of the latter is the 2017 “Blocksize War,” when the Bitcoin community split into the big block camp that launched the Bitcoin Cash fork and the small block camp that implemented the Segregated Witness upgrade in Bitcoin.

While the result was chaotic in the short term — with many a Bitcoin critic seeking to dance on Bitcoin’s grave — it proved to be one of the most important lessons on decentralized consensus and paved the way for the layered scaling via the Lightning Network that we enjoy today.

For an example of good news turning negative, we don’t have to go too far back into the past. Up until late 2022, FTX was the prime example of crypto going mainstream, with its Superbowl ads, stadium naming rights and glossy magazine features. But in the end, FTX proved to be a ticking time bomb that blew up in everybody’s face and set back the industry’s legitimacy by years.

Today marks 10 years since @tyler and I filed for the first spot Bitcoin ETF. The @SECGov's refusal to approve these products for a decade has been a complete