Effective today, the SEC has approved the first “spot Bitcoin products,” known as “ETPs” or “Exchange Traded Products.” These differ from the only historically existing Bitcoin securities product, a Bitcoin futures product that used conventional futures contracts in an attempt to mirror the Bitcoin market, albeit with mixed results. These spot products represent the first “legitimacy” of Bitcoin in the securities market, which the SEC has denied for the past fifteen years in the name of consumer protection. However, the news that several of these products are coming to market today should not be taken as a sign of endorsement of Bitcoin. The SEC has issued approval under great protest, only doing so after a court ruled that the SEC had not made a strong enough case in arguing against the prevention of such an event (Grayscale Investments LLC v. SEC.) Even now, the SEC is making plain that it has approved the products under great protest and that it sees significant risks and problems with the product’s existence (Dissenting Statement by SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw.)
Insofar as the new availability of exchange-traded Bitcoin products adds some air of legitimacy to their use in conventional investment portfolios, MY Wealth Planners’ position on Bitcoin has not changed: We do not believe Bitcoin is of net benefit to any investor or the world at large, and we will not implement it in our client’s portfolio, any more than we would implement concentrated or minor positions in any other form of currency or commodity. We further believe that investing client assets in Bitcoin, Bitcoin exchange-traded products, or any other form of Crypto, simply lends to the steady environmental damage caused by proof of work and proof of stake protocols and grants liquidity to bad actors, including international terrorist groups such as Hamas, human and drug traffickers, and simply put: the worst people on earth.
If you are curious about the specifics or thoroughness of our position in not utilizing Bitcoin or Crypto products for you as our clients, or are just a member of the general public, please feel free to read and listen to our consistent messaging on this subject over the past several years. You are, of course, welcome to disagree or to engage in questioning our point of view on the subject, but insofar as clients to whom we owe a fiduciary duty, we will not partake in the use of Crypto assets now or for the foreseeable future, regardless of the shape and size of the marketplace for such products.
Our Writing and By Others on This Topic
Fleece Vests Episode 1 – Bitcoin
Play Stupid Games: Win Stupid Prizes