Billions of dollars flowed into United States spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the first week of trading. But despite their immense popularity, some crypto executives claim these instruments violate the ideals crypto was built on.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved multiple spot Bitcoin ETFs for the first time on Jan. 10, and they began trading on Jan. 11. Trading activity showed that there was enormous pent-up demand for these products, as they experienced $10 billion in trading volume over the first seven days. In addition, the Bitcoin ETF market saw over $782 million of net inflows of capital in just the first two days of trading.
But despite the proven popularity of these financial instruments, some executives at crypto companies are urging caution, claiming that ETFs may lead to greater centralization in the crypto industry and will not be needed in the future anyway.
Cointelegraph spoke to Andy Bromberg, CEO of wallet developer Eco, who claimed that ETFs could give traditional financial institutions excessive influence over the market. “You are, in fact, when you buy into one of these Bitcoin ETFs, giving Wall Street money to buy Bitcoin with, [and] they own the Bitcoin, and you own a piece of paper that says you have a share in this,” Bromberg stated. He claimed this was “stepping away from the ideals” that Bitcoin was founded upon:
“There is a world where, if all people entering the industry care about and think about is price and not what this technology actually does, they’ll buy into these Bitcoin ETFs. And one day, these Wall Street institutions will own 70% of the Bitcoin in circulation […] I’m not so sure that is the thing that we were trying to build.”Bitcoin ETF inflows for Jan. 11–12. Source: Eric Balchunas on X, citing Bloomberg Terminal data
Bromberg called Bitcoin an “incredible thing” but claimed that the ETFs are “Bitcoin with all of the incredible things taken away from it and just leaving the price.”
Despite this criticism, Bromberg claimed that he was happy that the ETFs were approved. Echoing SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, he…
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