Greater Fools Are Watching’: Bitcoin Is Here to Stay, Elites AdmitFrom the Rockefeller Foundation to Donald Trump, critics who wrote Bitcoin autopsies are now examining their own heads.

Coin Desk ^ | Daniel Kuhn

[NoLibZone]

The Financial Times, perhaps THE arch-critic of cryptocurrencies over the past decade, has conceded that Bitcoin might just have a purpose. It’s just the latest data point that there is a great shift happening in how people view crypto, from ex-President Donald Trump to Larry Fink. They may not fully grasp what’s going on (who does?), but they sense it’s important.

“The bitcoin bulls have been proved mostly right about its prospects as a long-term investment,” Rockefeller International Chair Ruchir Sharma wrote in an opinion piece titled “Once dismissed as fanatics, the bitcoin bulls must be feeling vindicated.” Noting that bitcoin (BTC) has traditionally behaved like penny stocks that tend to pump and then dump, he said the fact that its bubble burst and quickly recovered “suggests that something real and sustainable is going on.”

“There is an old Wall Street saying for moments like this: only the fools are dancing, but the bigger fools are watching,” Sharma added. True, this is not the official position of the U.K.-based paper or its editorial board, just a contributing writer. But it still stands out as something significant for the FT in particular to publish. For years, it hasn’t published opinion pieces like this. Many of the paper’s reporters and editors have been staunch critics of crypto, and take any opportunity to write negative articles or post self-satisfied statements when things go awry in crypto, which is often.

Nowhere is this more apparent than on Alphaville, the FT’s erudite daily markets blog, which could be read as standing for the general (but unofficial) view of the paper. Here is a sampling of headlines Alphaville published over the past four years pertaining to crypto: Little evidence that a spot bitcoin ETF would expand the market

(Boy, did they get that one wrong.)

Let crypto burn

(Charming.)

(A Tether crisis think piece.)

Why bitcoin is worse than a Madoff-style Ponzi scheme (Madoff was pretty bad.)

Oh no, now Deloitte with the crypto nonsense

(Godforbid companies take an interest in ascendent technology.)

The crypto Buffett lunch has been postponed. Lucky Warren Buffett.

(They may have gotten this one right.)

Notably, former Alphaville editor Izabella Kaminska had a change of heart on Bitcoin in 2020 and ultimately quit the FT two years later (for a number of reasons). She wrote at the time “part of me has always thought of the crypto market as a type of honeytrap for the worst irrational exuberance emerging from the quantitative easing and zirp [Zero Interest-Rate Policy] era.”

While the growing appreciation for Bitcoin among the tastemakers and power brokers of the world doesn’t necessarily translate to support for crypto across the board (a point-of-view that could be considered as Bitcoin Maximalism Light), it does open the doors to more people thinking more seriously about blockchain technology.

In other words, crypto is becoming destigmatized. Time will tell how far this will filter up within elite circles — it likely hangs on bitcoin’s continued success. B but I can imagine a day where the default position isn’t to sneer, jeer or steer clear of bitcoin and instead view it as part of the financial furniture.

Enter Donald Trump, who called crypto a “scam” in 2021 but told CNBC this weekend he has been having “fun” with crypto and called bitcoin an “additional form of currency.”

These are not the first positive comments Trump has made as his presidential campaign ramps up, suggesting he no longer sees crypto as a threat towards his “America First” agenda or considers it cut from the same populist cloth.

Further, even if people aren’t out-and-out Bitcoin or crypto supporters, the number of people willing to criticize the industry appears to be dwindling.

There are a number of factors influencing this shift, including the successful launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. Not only did this prove there was intense pent up demand for bitcoin exposure but also that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s years of fear mongering about potential market manipulation was misplaced.

More importantly perhaps, as Sharma’s op-ed suggests, it seems like these elite folks are tired of being wrong. There are only so many supposed Bitcoin autopsies that can be written before critics have to examine their own heads.

Of course, whether or not people in high places begrudgingly accept that it’s not disappearing doesn’t matter much. Crypto still has its flaws. The hope is that, with fewer people trodding out the same tired arguments to be debunked, the quality of industry criticism will rise.

Sharma himself, while accepting that bitcoin is a viable investment, still has his reservations. He noted that bitcoin isn’t being used much as a currency and that the idea that it’ll become “‘digital gold’ [is] still a dream.” He’s not wrong that bitcoin isn’t commonly being used to buy coffee by anyone but fanatics, but he does contradict himself.

[NoLibZone]

Enter Donald Trump, who called crypto a “scam” in 2021 but told CNBC this weekend he has been having “fun” with crypto and called bitcoin an “additional form of currency.”

These are not the first positive comments Trump has made as his presidential campaign ramps up, suggesting he no longer sees crypto as a threat towards his “America First” agenda or considers it cut from the same populist cloth.

[Jonty30]

I’m still convinced it is a scam. Until Christ comes and tells me that it was not a scam, I will believe it was a scam.

[traderrob6]

Invest in that crap if you so choose. I’ll keep my wealth in tangible assets thank you.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

If YOU would like to be on a CRYPTO PING LIST, please pm me.

The Crypto Ping List covers the following:

Bitcoin
Ethereum
Other coins built on the Ethereum blockchain mining
etc.

Thanks! For it - or ag'in it, it'll be a wild ride.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I’m still convinced it is a scam. Until Christ comes and tells me that it was not a scam, I will believe it was a scam.

How, then, is the fiat US dollar not a scam.

After the gold standard was abandoned it was backed by the "full faith and credit of the U.S. federal government," but that was before the U.S. government went feral.

[Osage Orange]

I have physical gold and silver...much better plan in my mind. And has worked for hundreds of years.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I’m still convinced it is a scam. Until Christ comes and tells me that it was not a scam, I will believe it was a scam.

It sure sounds like you'd best keep away from the evil stuff.

Willing to help you!

Send it to me and I'll make sure it is disposed of properly.

[Manuel OKelley]

The fiat dollar is a scam but it’s here and it works for the moment

My problem with bitcoin is it represents a previously consumed value of power used to generate it

[Vermont Lt]

Over the past ten years or so, the compound annual return for silver is about 1/2%. For gold, it has barely kept up with inflation.

And I have a bunch of both.

The CAGR for bitcoin for the same period is somewhere around 75%.

[traderrob6]

Physical precious metals, Farm/Timber land, Lakefront property.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

My problem with bitcoin is it represents a previously consumed value of power used to generate it

I have no idea what that means. Do you?

[C210N]

Until Trump or someone unveils how BTC is actually backed by real non-fiat money, it is a scam. A Ponzi scam.

Trump is draining the swamp, and the only currencies that will be left standing, after the fall of ALL fiat, will be ISO20022, tier-1 backed, Basel III, QFS, NESARA/GESARA.

[traderrob6]

Last year my net yield was 9.2%, 8.7% this YTD.

[KC_Conspirator]

Can you add me to ping list?

[aMorePerfectUnion]

—> Can you add me to ping list?

You’re so in!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

—> Can you add me to ping list?

You’re so in!

[Alberta's Child]

The fiat dollar may be a “scam,” but it’s the most widely used currency in the world.

In other words … it’s a “scam” if you think it holds value, but it’s a perfectly good medium of exchange for current transactions.

I would point out that if you see the U.S. dollar this way, your best strategy is to build lots of dollar-denominated debt while investing in assets that are most likely to retain value over time no matter what happens to the value of the dollar.

[yuleeyahoo]

Earlier this year, Morell called blockchain technology a “boon for surveillance” in a report, published by the Coinbase- and Square-led Crypto Council for Innovation. The report defended the cryptocurrency against claims that its best use case is for criminal enterprise. Instead, the public nature of transactions makes it an “underutilized forensic tool for governments to identify illicit activity.”

https://decrypt.co/87768/cia-confirms-rumors-working-cryptocurrency-projects

[RFEngineer]

From a practical sense, Bitcoin is a decent substitute for wires/swift for money transfers.

There are too few ways to transact in native bitcoin, so that is a fail.

Its (and I am not casting aspersions) a speculative investment.

There are too many risks (govt regulators, competing crypto emerging that address bitcoin shortfalls are a couple of big ones) to state “its here to stay” in my opinion.

[NoLibZone]

I believe you.