So guys, after reading a bit aroud this incoming ETF thing, I didn't decided yet whether this event will pump or dump the price!
I think that if an ETF should be approved, which I'm not too convinced of right now, it could be a mixed blessing. Depending on its rules and its effective audience, it can turn out to be a pump&dump machine for the elites or a retail instrument for mom&pops.
The first route could lead to more turmoil, chaos and mainstream scorn. The second route could help bitcoin become what it was designed to be. I'm thinking of mostly clueless baby boomers who could embrace an instrument promising exceptional growth
and listed on the "normal" channels. This would lead to universal recognition, and in turn wider adoption.
Admitting some form of ETF is eventually approved, which way will it go? Hard to tell. Verifying a fund's financial solvibility/consistency is a trivial matter, given the way the blockchain works. Verifiable pubblic addresses require virtually no auditing.
However, as said above, the SEC guys are likely just bureaucrats at heart, with a vulture tinge on the side. So rather than certainty of collateral - which is trivial to verify as we all know - they focus on the (in)stability and manipulability of the underlying market - which as of today, is still a hard to deny reality.
We are facing interesting days for sure. And months, and years.