Cryptocurrency: Only a Scam When You Can’t Make Money Off of It

Donald Trump was no fan of Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in 2019.

In 2021, he called it a scam.

In 2024, he’s all for it.

What changed?

He figured out how to make money off of it.

In this case, people paid for his sneakers with crypto. We can’t ban it anymore.

But that’s not all! Remember his NFTs? Or his personal bag of Ethereum that he picked up last year?

If money wasn't enough to get him on the bandwagon, now he can get votes, too.

Whether he realizes it or not, Vivek’s people and single-issue voters aren’t exactly simpatico with Biden’s crypto policy.

He’s not the first politician to change his mind in exchange for votes and money.

It’s not about you

Before you start running away with images of Trump tearing down the evil banksters and liberal Wall Street sycophants when he gets into office, remember: he’s one of the biggest beneficiaries of that very system you’re trying to replace.

You can say the same for everybody who holds financial power in the US.

The US has the most advanced, robust, and sophisticated financial system on earth.

It’s so advanced, robust, and sophisticated that its government, businesses, and citizens spend many billions of dollars each year on regulators, courts, lawyers, compliance departments, clearinghouses, accountants, settlement companies, brokers, traders, power companies, cybersecurity experts, and a whole legal and regulatory apparatus designed to keep this system from collapsing.

That’s a lot of time and effort, but it pays off. Stable markets and access to capital are true luxuries.

What about the billions of people outside the US who don’t have access to this system?

In some places, the quality is as good or better than anything they’d get in the US. In other places, it’s almost non-existent. Often, it’s somewhere in between, leading many to seek a better way to build wealth, do business, and manage finances.

Cryptocurrency has filled some of these needs with USD stablecoins, DeFi protocols, private money, and other goods and services that run on crypto protocols.

Investors (like us) have grown our wealth with tokens and rewards from those crypto protocols.

Now, it’s Wall Street’s turn, starting with bitcoin ETFs.

It’s only a scam when they can’t sell it

Wall Street firms can’t make money off of a decentralized, permissionless, anti-fragile money system that funds itself and is accessible to everybody. They run a totally different business model. They charge people for access to financial opportunities. Crypto gives people those opportunities for free.

Their solution?

Wrap crypto in a “safe, easy, regulated” product and sell it to people who don’t want to take five minutes to open a Coinbase account.

When did Fidelity put a Bitcoin allocation into its “All In One” passive investment portfolios?

After it launched its ETF.

According to Fidelity, Bitcoin was not worth putting into your portfolio before January 10, 2024. Since then, it’s a must—you need to keep 1-3% in its bitcoin fund (for a small fee).

Why let Greyscale or some other Bitcoin fund get a cut of their clients’ money when they can take that cut for themselves?

Nobody needs a Bitcoin ETF, but until crypto developers and entrepreneurs figure out how to fund a Bitcoin wallet with one click or deliver easy, trustworthy solutions for pension funds and retirement accounts, ETFs will serve a purpose. Nothing beats the convenience of telling your broker to buy or tapping the “trade” button on your account dashboard.

Once crypto developers create interfaces and platforms that offer a material advantage over the legacy financial system, ETFs will fade into obsolescence. We’re a long way from that!

Until then, Wall Street will push Bitcoin funds. Maybe other cryptocurrencies, too.

They finally have a way to make money off of that.

Available as a collectible NFT at https://mirror.xyz.

Mark Helfman publishes the Crypto is Easy newsletter. He is also the author of three books and a top Bitcoin writer on Medium and Hacker Noon. Learn more about him in his bio and connect with him on Superpeer or Tealfeed.