I'm not excited but I can see the up side of this. I can also see the down side. Others have spoken of the down sides but here's a list.

There are probably more.

The upside

Why is Blackrock doing this? One highly like reason is that their customers want bitcoin in their investment portfolios. Yes, they should do it the right way but few start from that point. A lot of hard lessons are gonna have to be learned. Traditional finance isn't going to just say, ok. I guess we are obsolete now. No, they are gonna try to make money off of bitcoin as well.

The entrance of Blackrock makes it more likely others will follow. Yeah, people here don't care about this stuff but we are the early adopters that get it. The boomers don't get it. They won't get it for the most part but more people buying, even not self custody will make it less likely the state comes after bitcoiners. We aren't gonna just jump from fiat world to bitcoin world in one step. Many people will do dumb things. There will be battles, mistakes, and ugly mistakes.

This gives more people access to bitcoin. Specifically people that would never self custody. Yeah, they may get scammed. They may get burned. The state can take their bitcoin if they don't have custody. These are lessons some will only learn the hard way.

This takes more bitcoin off the table raising the buying power of bitcoin.

In short, I'm not afraid of Blackrock. I'm not a fan of Blackrock either. On net in think this will be one step on the way to a bitcoin standard. I'm not excited about it but I'm not angry or worried either.

Some people just want to make money with Bitcoin and have no interest in what Bitcoin is. But these people usually lose money.

It was unexpected after dozen of rejections and SEC's aggressive stance on cryptocurrencies.

And now things become even more inetersting since this is not only BlackRock who designed not the best product but also others who re-applied to SEC.

Good for retirement accounts

Only shitcoiners are excited. Not bitcoiners.

I see a certain level of immaturity in a lot of bitcoiners. They have this naive idea that if groups or people use bitcoin in ways they don't like that will affect bitcoin... It doesn't. If it did, bitcoin would fail. What does affect bitcoin is the code, the nodes, and the miners. If people wanna be stupid and give their precious money to someone else that's on them. They will lose it. They will have to learn their lesson the hard way.

When you act all concerned about people using bitcoin in ways you don't agree with you come off as insecure and insecure about bitcoin's strength. Governments will try to destroy it, when they fail they will try to control it. They can't. They can only control those that allow themselves to be controlled. Let the fools be fools. Be a light. Be a citadel. Do things the right way and people will come and find you when they are ready.

Simple reason - they think it'll pump their bags. I can't help but roll my eyes whenever I see some clown on social media happy about shit like this.

Also because it just has to be said: FUCK BLACKROCK

Having a deeper market to sell/buy into isn't bad.

ETF doesn't effect the ability of people to self custody.

I don't think bitcoiners who understand bitcoin and see it as a freedom technology is excited about this. I think only those who are looking for fiat gains through bitcoin are excited about this. At the same time, no one can stop anyone from using bitcoin. Bitcoin is working as intended and Blackrock can join the network no matter how much bitcoiners dislike / hate them.

Lol the only ones excited are those who manage money and think they can use this to add btc exposure to their failing portfolios and people who are going to sell others paper bitcoin at a profit

Oh and people who still want more fiat and think this will pump their bags, all a bunch of fickle people that are only on the side of fiat gains not on bitcoin

True

people still thinking in fiat terms.

Are you sure you did not read the excitement from glowies or BlackRock astroturf?

If you've understood the why of Bitcoin, you understand that this is a bad thing for the Bitcoin revolution. No reason to get excited about it.

Could BlackRock Destroy Bitcoin?

Is this the same Blackrock (malevolent corporate entity) that's bought up all of the housing in the US, price-gouged the market, dramatically increasing the number of homeless, and robbing an entire generation of their ability to ever have their own home? Because I'm not excited, either way.

Think of it as a stepping stone. And think more of institutions than plebs.

Companies that don't want the hassle of what Saylor went through with MSTR but still want exposure to Bitcoin can use this investment vehicle more conveniently. Eventually, they might decide to pivot into self custody.

Eventually, a follow-up to this fund might be a true spot ETF (as in the Bitcoin is really (supposed to be) there) which, again, is more convenient to your average boomer who already has a brokerage account and is familiar with the stock market.

I consider this slightly bullish for adoption and definitely bullish for price in mid-term (because even if it's done via futures, there will be some underlying buying pressure on the spot market). It's up to bitcoiners to continue evangelizing self-custody.

Bitcoin is for everyone, enemies included.

Watch bitcoin academy on YouTube - Blackrock ETF episode

Also, you need to hold the underlying to keep the value of the ETF inline with the live of bitcoin. Ofc there is some room for manipulation. But not that much and nothing like FTX

One (inevitable) step towards mainstream bitcoin adoption.

So basically what @kepford said

Coincidentally yesterday I did a search on Youtube directly instead of NewPipe, with the keyword Bitcoin (generally I don't search but listen to the couple of channels I subscribed to). I stumbled across videos like "Buy" or like "Price to the moon". So I guess it is for this emotional behavior about prices hikes.