It’s safe to say that it is conflict of interest but I don’t think it matters if their intentions are clean. As far as they are not against the anonymity and be-your-own-bank idea of Bitcoin, they can find with any amount they want to. At the end of the day Bitcoin will enjoy the benefits. Also, considering that they are supporting Bitcoin, I hope their banking system allows people to trade Bitcoin else it wouldn’t make sense.
Do you think it is a benefit to Bitcoin and the community for Bitcoin to be traded as an ETF or would it be better if people used it peer-to-peer?
Financial institutions of all types are promoting bitcoin as an investment to be held by the institution giving them control of the asset and the transactions.
This is how they plan to move people away from using Bitcoin as a currency. It is working!!
I totally agree with you. They aren’t the ones who even started it, we Bitcoin enthusiasts, traders, holders, etc started it by making it seem like the most valuable thing about Bitcoin is the increase in price which then becomes profitable. They are now seeing that people already carrying that ideology, for example the whole ETF thing, which they are probably supporting so it kills the idea of using it as payment. To be honest, I do not think they’ll support Bitcoin if the only perception of Bitcoin was that you’d eliminate the bank (them).