The long-awaited launch Bitcoin ETFs in the United States this year helped generate a wave of optimism that the value of the well-known cryptocurrency will rise quickly. The logic was simple: With an easy, low-cost way now available to ordinary investors to buy Bitcoin, the supply and demand curve would shift and the value of each Bitcoin would rise.
But the response has been somewhat mixed. While the value of bitcoin has nearly doubled in the past year to about $43,000 today, it has traded largely sideways in recent weeks. Was the uproar and response that followed another example of the old Wall Street adage: “Buy the rumor, sell the news”?
To be honest, we check flows in and out of Bitcoin ETFs more frequently than we want to admit, but we still want to know more. So, we asked TechCrunch readers whether they plan to buy Bitcoin via one of the new spot ETFs, whether they own Bitcoin elsewhere, and what impact they expect these new investment vehicles to have on its value and on cryptocurrencies.
After dozens of responses from founders and operators, we found some interesting trends. About a quarter of respondents to our small, unscientific survey reported that they do not intend to buy Bitcoin via ETFs, and that they already own Bitcoin elsewhere. Where do people keep their coins? It turns out it's everywhere: Self-Guard, Coinbase, KuCoin, all kinds of sites. Somewhat impressively, Dara Khan, head of marketing at Decent DAO Bitcoin, said that her wallet ended up at the “bottom of the ocean, and I lost it in a boating accident :(”.
