Danny Saunders, a senior govt at {hardware} pockets maker Trezor, stated the rising behavior of holding Bitcoin in ETFs may pose long-term dangers to the basic tenets of the crypto sector.
Talking on the BTC Prague occasion, Trezor enterprise director Saunders stated there are roughly 600 million crypto customers worldwide, however solely about 10% of them maintain their property utilizing proprietary custody strategies. In keeping with Sanders, the variety of individuals utilizing {hardware} wallets is just between 12 million and 13 million.
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Institutional investor curiosity in Bitcoin has elevated considerably as a consequence of the truth that the US Spot Bitcoin ETF has attracted over $53 billion in inflows since its inception in 2024. However Sanders warned that this pattern may dampen customers’ want to have direct management over their non-public keys.
Sanders argued that whereas private management is a elementary function of the Bitcoin system, there are nonetheless main challenges with regards to person expertise and safety. Due to this fact, many traders want to take part available in the market via middleman options reminiscent of exchanges, custodial providers, and ETFs.
As a substitute of accepting a construction that fully pushes Bitcoin into ETFs, Trezor executives stated the business ought to deal with making private storage simpler and safer. The shift to long-term Bitcoin holdings, dominated by ETFs, weakens the thought of a decentralized asset and might be a “worst-case situation” for the business, Sanders stated.
*This isn’t funding recommendation.
