Arthur Hayes mentioned in an earlier interview with a foreign media podcast that news about the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs is making a noise in the crypto community, but he does not believe that such an event is beneficial to Bitcoin or the people who use Bitcoin.
Arthur Hayes pointed out that assuming that large traditional financial institutions enter the market and absorb most of the Bitcoins, "these institutional entities can even launch Bitcoin mining ETFs", "BlackRock is the largest shareholder of some large mining businesses," like BlackRock Asset management companies like De 's are effectively "agents of the state" who act at the behest of the state, "if the state needs its citizens "to sit firmly in the fiat banking system" in order to tax them through inflation to repay the ongoing Growing debt, then it would make sense for institutional entities — which are essentially state-subordinated — to park our money in ETF vehicles.”
In such an ETF system, users will use legal currency to purchase derivatives, and the asset management company buys some Bitcoins and then hands them over to a custodian for safekeeping. Hayes believes that "in such a system, you can't actually use Bitcoin. It is a financial asset, but it is not really Bitcoin itself."
"If the BlackRock ETF gets too big, it could actually kill Bitcoin, because Bitcoin will become a bunch of immovable assets that just sit there." He even warned, "These entities could Increase control over the network's consensus mechanism by holding a large number of miners. To ensure that Bitcoin remains a "rock-solid cryptocurrency hard currency asset", we may need to make certain upgrades, especially in terms of encryption and privacy. These upgrades are not necessarily consistent with traditional financial institutions."
Hayes worries, “Bitcoin is the antithesis of a centralized currency. Bitcoin exists to allow us to send money freely around the world. What will happen if most of it ends up being held by one or a few institutions? Of course, wider adoption of Bitcoin will undoubtedly be good for its price, but will it really do much to help Bitcoin’s utility? People need to think about this from a long-term perspective. Well, here come the ETFs, The price of Bitcoin is rising as it should, but what is the end result of one institution holding all these cryptocurrencies?”
