Apologies in advance as this has likely been discussed elsewhere. In the event that "hyperbitcoinization" escalates to the point where BTC practically competes with nation states as a global medium of exchange, let's assume that they won't take too kindly this. In an attempt to stem the systemic outflows, the USA, for example, could ramp up preventative measures against self-custody. As draconian measure like this intensify, I imagine there will be a run for the exits from the ETFs, essentially a bank run of sorts. If something like this happens, wouldn't all the price pump we're seeing as a result of the ETFs turn into sell pressure volatility? I started considering this when wondering why it took a dump and a few weeks of consolidation after the ETF launches for the market to stabilize and GBTC sell-offs to rotate out to other offerings. If there was massive regulatory uncertainty and widespread panic in financial markets, wouldn't the same take place on a massive scale rotating out of the ETFs to self-custody?

I'm usually not too concerned with price and happy to sit and hodl, but the curiosity popped into my mind. In the above situation, aren't the current gains from "ETF inflows" essentially a "what goes up, must come down" situation? If so, it suggests that decentralization of liquidity, and especially into self-custody, is quite important to financial stability and volatility of the Bitcoin economy.

Even if this post pretends to speak financese, I don't actually know enough about the tradfi or macroeconomics to sense whether it makes real sense. So hopefully people who do may offer more informed perspective.