Blackrock is a glimpse into the future. Paper BTC for anyone and everyone. How much paper BTC is already out there? Lots and lots. By example: Sofi sells BTC; well they sell the price of BTC. People don’t own anything but a price. The bank doesn’t own any BTC either most likely. Just list Bitcoin as something you can buy. I don’t know how this all ends. Fear is BTC goes the way of gold which is easily manipulated via paper.
Discussion
FTX was def a smoking gun that all these things we talk about are real, that poor incentives around custodians create problems and opportunists take advantage.
I don't think BTC goes the same road. BTC is much easier for self-custody and transfer. The market of custodians is open.
With gold it is hard to check if it is real. Hard to divide or join coins. Hard to transfer it to another country or just for long distance. Hard to hide. These are all reasons to use custodians for gold. And BTC fixes this!
You will hear many people say “I own some BTC” when they mean they own exposure to price of BTC via Paper. You will hear it today a lot more than you think & that will only grow in the future. Like the gold rush of the 1800’s; some mined or bought actual nuggets while eventually many just held a piece of paper that was easily confiscated by central powers (eventually).
Stack & HODL the real thing (we’re still early) and put it in cold storage forever. Then borrow against it for fiat when you want to buy a 4th house. That’s what we should be doing as early panners of BTC.