The announcement couldn't have happened any weirder, as the Bitcoin ETF's that were approved today were first announced by the SEC on X (Twitter) two days ago... but then they claimed their account was hacked, and stated that no ETFs had been approved.

Now that we know the supposed 'hack' simply posted accurate information before it was official, some are questioning if it was an error all along.

But how we found out doesn't really matter anymore, because it's now confirmed and re-confirmed that the Securities and Exchange Commission officially approved 11 applications for Bitcoin ETFs, the largest firms among them include BlackRock, Ark Investments/21Shares, Fidelity, Invesco, and VanEck.

Trading Begins...Now!

Because the SEC must respond to applications  ETF applicants were anticipating an answer from the SEC at any moment, they were ready to go before officially receiving approval - because of this, they went live the next day.

In their first day, the newly approved Bitcoin ETFs saw a combined $5 billion in volume, top performers so far are BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust which is trading under "IBIT.O", Grayscale Bitcoin Trust "GBTC.P", and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF with symbol "ARKB.Z".

They Say It's a "Game Changer" - But To Who?

Traders from both the stock and crypto world have repeated the words "game-changer" when describing the impact this could have on cryptocurrencies, citing the new investors who now have exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency. So who are these investors? If they're interested in Bitcoin, what were they waiting for?

The newly launched ETFs all fighting over what they believe is a large segment of both individuals and companies that are interested in investing in Bitcoin, but hesitated to pull the trigger and buy some. Many potential investors cite their main concern is simply how to securely hold worth of a digital assets, which can be intimidating on a technical level.

For a company, acquiring crypto comes with all new cyber-security concerns, where every employee is a potential security hole. Stocks can't really be 'hacked' and stolen, gold and silver can be stored in any bank vault - while storing crypto safely and securely is easy to do, people who aren't experienced with tech are often too intimidated by the risks.

Now, individuals, companies, and even smaller investment firms can pass the responsibility of storing Bitcoin securely on to the industry giants, who have the budget necessary for hiring cybersecurity experts and the tech needed to implement multi-level security systems.

A Tsunami of Money Headed Towards Crypto?

Many believe the floodgates are now open for massive amounts of institutional investment funds to enter the market, and their reasoning actually makes a lot of sense.

The companies that were just approved to offer Bitcoin ETFs represent $20+ trillion in assets under management - meaning if just 2% of that goes toward crypto we'll see $400,000,000,000 (400 billion) injected into the market. 

The crazy thing is, that estimate may be way too small, as we've talked with multiple financial advisors at multiple firms over the past few years when covering various stories about crypto being implemented into their business - one thing we repeatedly heard was that they recommend their client's portfolio to contain anywhere from 5% to 10% crypto.

A recent survey of financial advisors conducted by VettaFi and Bitwise found that 88% said they support investing client's funds in bitcoin, but were waiting for spot bitcoin ETF to be approved.

Then Why Did Bitcoin DROP Following ETF Approval?

With the overwhelming opinion being that the ETFs would be approved, along with the deadline of Jan 10th being public, by the time the ETFs were officially approved every investor who bought more bitcoin with this in mind bought days or weeks ahead. 

Which is why the quote "buy the rumor, sell the news" is something most in the crypto world are used to seeing.  Most buying relating to a news story happens as speculation grows, once that speculation becomes fact, people sell.

Massive Bull Run About to Begin... VERY Soon?

In closing, the only thing we've officially gained this week are new possibilities, a 'reasonable expectation' for Bitcoin's future price just went up.  But if there's one thing I've learned in my 6 years in the crypto world; prepare for what COULD come next, and never believe you know what that will.

With that said, prices have returned to where they were before ETF hype took over the headlines - so if the 'sell the news' process is complete, the market is probably about to turn positive. If it does, I believe it'll have some strength behind it - many people recently took some profits, and in the Bitcoin world a lot of selling is followed by lot of buyers looking to buy more at a lower price. 

---------------
Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

One year ago today, all hell broke lose. 

"Cryptocurrencies Melt Down in a ‘Perfect Storm’ of Fear and Panic" wrote the NYTimes,

"$1 Trillion Crypto Meltdown—Huge Crash Wipes Out The Price Of Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Cardano, Solana, Terra’s Luna And Avalanche" was the headline at Forbes.

Bitcoin would lose a total of 12% of its value on this day, and that looked good compare to Ethereum, XRP, BNB, Cardano, Solana, all which lost between 20%-30% in the same time period. 

For us, people with a sizeable portion of their net worth inside the crashing market, the popular 'swap to a stablecoin until it's over' move was followed by praying the stable coin you chose actually was stable. 

Even if you managed to minimize your own losses, it was impossible to be part of any of the main online crypto communities, from the Bitcointalk message boards, to Crypto-Twitter, and several popular crypto subreddits were filled with despair.

3 Months Later FTX's Collapse Would Overshadow This Period Forever.  But on This Date, No One in Crypto Was Receiving More Praise than Sam Bankman-Fried...

Sam was about to save the entire industry. 

Over the days ahead companies that were heavily invested in Luna and UST were struggling, or flat out collapsing. This is where Sam would step in offering hundreds of millions to companies from his pile of spare spendable cash (which today appears to have been his user's cash, that he was spending without permission).

In one interview he talks about meeting inside FTX where they determined he could spend up to $1 billion basically bailing out crypto companies if they had long term potential, and of course he would now own piece of them all. 

If You Want a Truly Surreal Experience - Read This Article from NYTimes, Published This Week One Year Ago...

There's so many parts of this article that cringe-inducing to read today that it was hard to choose a couple examples, but I think these will give you an idea of just how far Sam took his fantasy of being a high-profile successful genius, and how good he was at convincing others to believe it as well.

A little over a week before this, Sam and FTX held their first of what was supposed to be an annual conference in the Bahamas, the reporter writes "Everywhere he went, crypto entrepreneurs offered handshakes and fist bumps, patting him on the back as they pitched projects or presented him with branded swag".

I did warn you this would be cringe-inducing. 

Another interesting part is where Sam's seemingly reveals that even his... unique style and sometimes awkward behavior was a calculated move, according to the article "Before one of his first TV appearances, Andy Croghan, a colleague at Alameda and FTX, urged him to clean up his look. “I was like, ‘Sam, you’ve got to cut your hair, dude — it looks ridiculous,’” Mr. Croghan said. “And he said, ‘I honestly think it’s negative for me to cut my hair. I think it’s important for people to think I look crazy."

But the gem of the article (well, if you're looking for the strangest parts) has to be this next story which begins in the FTX offices "A few colleagues were cracking crypto-themed sex jokes in the office" I'm not kidding, that was printed by the NYTimes, I really wish they included an example.  Anyway, these naughty jokesters got Sam's attention and threw his genius mind into overdrive  - then it came to him - FTX needs their own condoms. 

Now that may sound crazy at first but there's a good reason - marketing. The article says that "Sam whirled around in his chair. He wondered, was there expected value (EV) in distributing condoms with jokes on them at an upcoming conference?" Sam decided - obviously yes. 

So what would Sam print on them? Ironically, a statement that FTX would survive the exact situation that ended up destroying it.

The condom wrapper reads “Never breaks” in large letters and underneath  “even during large liquidations.” 

Today you find people selling them on EBay as collectors items.

Good times.

------- 
Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk
Breaking Crypto News

What we're seeing is... odd.

In reality, there was some extremely good news this week.  The US House Of Representatives did something they rarely do - pass bills with the support of both parties. 

Among them, some huge changes for cryptocurrency as real action began to stop the US from falling behind. Including plans for classifying cryptocurrencies as an 'asset' like gold, rather than a security - finally freeing crypto from regulations written in the 1940's.

That story barely had a chance to be seen before the markets suddenly plummeted.

Now imagine you're one of the billionaires (or at least have a few hundred million)  who came from Wall Street to the crypto markets this year...

We know on Wall Street there's some investors who just have some fantastic "luck".

Somehow always pulling out right before the market crashes on the average person. Then, they even know when to put their money back in too - shortly before a stock skyrockets.

When it comes to crypto, there's still a bunch of these guys on the sidelines - watching the market has them feeling left out - excluded, embarrassed, angry that they had 'missed the boat'.

...Or had they?

Imagine how stupid they feel having no understanding of cryptocurrency, yet average people's investments are outperforming theirs by hundred percent's.

But when you're above the average peasant, you look out for your fellow elite.

We may be looking at the last chance being given for big money to get in at a lower price...

A door opened by their friends who did get in on time.  All it takes is a few people controlling large sums to dump their holdings, lowering the price, they re-buy, and so do their friends who had previously been left out.

The scare...

Thrown out as something being 'considered' so the story could be forgotten overnight, the media spent a day scaring everyday investors that Biden wants to tax profits at 43%  - more than double the current rate. 

Why would the Biden administration willingly float a rumor like this? Well, the financial services industry didn't give him $250 million (more than double Trump) for nothing. They certainly didn't give all that money to someone who would double the tax on their profits either.

But the initial panic caused both crypto and stock markets to take a sharp dive.

Today the stock market is recovering just as fast as it fell, because reality set in.  Biden wouldn't have the votes to pass this even if he wanted to.  Obama, with his party in the majority of both Congress and Senate, still wasn't able to pass more than a 5% raise from 15% to 20%. 

So this appears to be nothing more than a perfect rumor to trigger a medium sized, short term drop in the market. 

It could all be coincidence...

Everyone hates to think millions of us have just been jerked by a couple dozen egomaniacs sitting in their mansions within their gated community.  Perhaps they're just as confused as us.

But isn't this strange - that regulatory uncertainty was their main reason for not investing.

Then on the SAME DAY it becomes apparent that the US Gov is working to resolve these issues in a way that is favorable to crypto investors - those investments suddenly go on sale at the biggest discount all year? 

Today people were given a chance to buy Bitcoin as if they had bought in February.  Not a bad deal.

Is all this just a victimless crime? Well, if your life savings was in the form of 0.5BTC, you may have sold in a panic.  The market will bounce back twice as fast as it dropped, and someone unable to check the charts while at a day job, or even asleep could find themselves in a position of losing thousands just to buy back their original holdings. 

But like I said, probably all just a coincidence.

---------------
Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News