The rise of institutional Bitcoin adoption has split the crypto community. While some purists believe that Bitcoin was created to operate outside of government and institutional control, others welcome the involvement of financial giants like BlackRock and the US government, and see it as a catalyst for mainstream adoption.
Speaking on TheStreet Roundtable, Dan Tapiero, founder of Macro Investor and 10T Holdings, confirmed the dilemma.
“ETFs actually change things in terms of consciousness, it’s easy for people to just press a button, and suddenly, on their equity accounts, they’re a long bitcoin,” he said. “Again, they’re not actually Bitcoin for a long time on ETFs.”
Tapiero compared the situation with the gold market. There, some investors hold physical gold sticks, while others have content trading gold ETFs and futures. He sees Bitcoin evolved as well.
“The world is big enough for both people who want to do self-in-law bitcoin on their ledger. “But there are also people who want to trade it, use it for collateral, or generate yields.”
Roundtable host Scott Mercer has raised the fundamental question of whether Bitcoin’s increased integration with institutional finance coincides with the original spirit.
“The original cypherpunks would have said they created parallel systems by creating these assets to avoid governments and institutions,” Mercer said. “But those who probably want to raise numbers are rooting for BlackRock and the US government to enter space.”
Tapiero believes institutional involvement is ultimately a purely positive for Bitcoin adoption. “The overall pie from the perspective of people who understand Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, digital assets, and web3 will permeate everything we do,” he said. “I still think you have those people independent, and they’re off the grid. So I think you can have both.”