The arrival of a Bitcoin ETF in the United States may not end up being as positive as expected, said Arthur Hayes, founder of venture capital fund 100x.
The crypto community has been abuzz over the potential approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the United States.
While the SEC has not yet given any response on the matter, several investment experts believe that the approval of this Bitcoin-based investment vehicle is imminent. Therefore, as we have reported in this medium, there is a great wave of optimism that has been driving the price of the cryptocurrency upwards in recent weeks, reaching a new annual high of $35.870 dollars, on Tuesday.
In addition to the increases in the price of Bitcoin, investment products based on cryptocurrencies have registered Record entries this 2023, highlighting the great interest and confidence that investors have in BTC.
However, not everyone shares this optimistic sentiment.
Arthur Hayes, founder of 100x and co-founder of BitMEX, recently raised a number of concerns regarding the potential approval of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the US market.
During a participación in the podcast On the MarginHayes told Blockworks that the arrival of a spot Bitcoin ETF “could actually kill Bitcoin.”
Hayes' arguments for giving these statements are based on the institutional control that a Bitcoin ETF could foster about the cryptocurrency in the future.
As we know, Bitcoin was created as a form of decentralized electronic money, which people can use from anywhere in the world to make cross-border transactions, without the authorization of banking entities and without any type of intermediaries. However, according to Hayes, a Bitcoin ETF, which is a centralized investment product that is available to institutional investors, could put a large part of the bitcoins on the market “in the custody of a few institutions” and end up affecting the usefulness of the cryptocurrency.
Hayes said that institutions like BlackRock, which is seeking SEC approval to launch a Bitcoin spot ETF in the United States, are “agents of the state” and therefore end up acting according to what the state tells them.
If a situation were to arise where the state needed to keep citizens in the fiat banking system, in order to tax them to cover ever-increasing debts, Hayes points out that it is the institutions that will, by nature, obey the state and hold the money in a vehicle such as ETFs.
In a situation like this, “you can’t actually use Bitcoin. It’s a financial asset. It’s not Bitcoin itself,” Hayes said.
Despite the risks of centralization that Hayes points out, there are also those who differ from his opinion and consider that the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF in the US market will be a catalyst for innovation and price of the cryptocurrency.
Jean-Marie Mognetti, co-founder and CEO of CoinShares, thinks the introduction of a US spot ETF this or next year will be “a testament” to the relentless progress Bitcoin is making around the world.
On his social media, Mognetti stated that the fear of a possible concentration of Bitcoin power in institutions lacks solid foundations, since a “Bitcoin ETF does not deny self-custody or dilute the basic principles of decentralization and finite supply of Bitcoin,” argument.
According to Mognetti, the possible approval of such an investment vehicle for Bitcoin is not a betrayal of its principles, but a victory that represents “a long-awaited recognition by financial institutions.”
Continue reading: The reasons that will drive the price of Bitcoin, according to Michael Saylor
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