holder is a holder no matter where they are self custody or third party,
I'm actually not that interested in ETFs or whatever people say. Because I believe Bitcoin is Bitcoin. Even if there are other instruments backed by Bitcoin, they merely represent the price of Bitcoin; they aren't Bitcoin.
If you're a Bitcoin holder, then you're holding Bitcoin in your non-custodial wallet. If you hold a Bitcoin ETF, you're essentially just holding a shares that tracks the price of Bitcoin. So, you're not a Bitcoin holder; you're simply trying to profit from the price of Bitcoin without considering the true essence of Bitcoin itself.
but do you think this will have cause transactions to drop off over time as more adoption happens on the paper side?
The paper you're talking about is definitely ETFs.
Even if more people adopt ETFs, it won't lead to a decrease in transactions, as many people still conduct transactions using Bitcoin, whether it's purchasing goods or services, cross-border transactions, P2P transactions, or other transactions. Remember, Bitcoin functions as a decentralized transaction system, and many people still treat Bitcoin as such, not just for investment.