In the world of digital assets, a series of groups have co-opted the revolution, turning the industry into a minefield for both new and experienced market players. These groups range from BitMEX to Binance, Bitcoin.com, Blockstream, ShapeShift, Coinbase, Ripple, Ethereum, FTX, and Tether.
Grayscale, however, has managed to stay afloat amidst the chaos. Despite its high ETF management fees and a history of preventing GBTC holders from redeeming their shares, it managed to maintain a flat finish from the opening bell. Most of its $2.2 billion trading volume was likely on the sell side, reflecting the market’s distaste for the company and its CEO, Barry Silbert.
Meanwhile, some investors reported that their attempts to purchase ETF shares via their Vanguard brokerage accounts were rejected. Vanguard, along with Merrill Lynch, has no plans to offer BTC ETFs to its customers, citing BTC’s high volatility as a risk to generating positive real returns over the long term. Goldman Sachs also expressed skepticism, stating that they don’t consider it an asset class to invest in.
Despite the pushback from these financial institutions, BTC Core developers are celebrating the ETF debuts. Bitwise has declared that it will donate 10% of the profits from its BITB ETF to three organizations dedicated to BTC open-source development. Similarly, VanEck announced that it would donate five percent of its ETF profits to support the Bitcoin Core devs at Brink.
These announcements have drawn criticism, with some claiming that BTC’s future development is being ‘captured’ by Wall Street. The influence of Bitwise and VanEck could potentially affect future decisions regarding potential revisions to the BTC protocol.
BTC Core devs were responsible for the controversial changes to the original Bitcoin protocol, which eliminated its ability to serve as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. The resulting technology, BTC, is more suited to its current role as ‘digital gold,’ the kind of product around which an ETF might be built.
Last year, VanEck made a similar profit-sharing promise to Ethereum developers, reasoning that if traditional finance stands to gain from the efforts of Ethereum’s core contributors, it should also give back to their work. This move aligns with the Howey test, which states that an investment contract exists when there is an investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others.
This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | Global |
| Countries | 🇺🇸 |
| Sentiment | negative |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Barry Silbert, Satoshi Nakamoto, Gary |
| Companies | VanEck, Ripple, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Binance, Grayscale, FTX, SEC, Coinbase, Bitcoin.com, Vanguard, Human Rights Foundation, CoinGeek, BitMEX, Ethereum, Brink, Blockstream, Tether, BTC Core, OpenSats, Bitwise, ShapeShift |
| Currencies | Bitcoin, Ethereum, united states dollar |
| Securities | None |
