my thoughts. i love anton's videos and am a huge fan. i have watched many of them and he is always really really insightful.

however... i think saying etfs are 'bad' is kinda misleading. etfs are the gateway drug for wallstreet to bitcoin imo.

for better or for worse... the world may not be ready 'yet' for bitcoin to replace the dollar, or seriously compete with the dollar/euro/yen as a literal money or currency. Could it one day? yes i think it's entirely possible. but im not sure the world is ready for that yet.

governments would face a serious, meaningful competition to their own 'cash' or fiat as a store of value and potentially medium of exchange... and who would want to hold bonds if they could just hold bitcoin instead?

in other words, treating bitcoin as a commodity is an easy way for governments to 'face' the prospect of bitcoin and 'keep it in a box' so it doesn't threaten their power and control too much. so it doesn't scare them. i don't think their plan will work however - but i do think treating bitcoin as an etf commodity is a way for government to 'soften' the impact of bitcoin at least for now... however it's a trojan horse. eventually the etfs will pump the price... and more people will learn what keys are and want to hold their own. after all the nodes control the protocol not the miners and certainly not the etfs holding a few massive addresses.