While institutional interest is a significant milestone, it raises concerns about how Bitcoin’s core values — decentralization, security, and permissionlessness — can be preserved. EFTs are great for massive awareness and adoption but leave less freely circulating BTC on-chain. With billions of capital flowing into Bitcoin ETFs, institutions will play a major role in Bitcoin’s future. Therefore, Bitcoin builders must ensure that this doesn’t come at the expense of Bitcoin’s core principles. To put this in perspective, institutions like BlackRock are wielding financial influence that have the potential to influence Bitcoin’s ecosystem. For instance, its AUM dwarfs the entire market capitalization of many cryptocurrencies.
