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One year ago today, Gary Gensler and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally capitulated and approved spot trading of bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to go live the next day. These ETFs would become the best-performing ETFs in history, with BlackRock's $IBIT ETF leading the way, raising more than $52 billion. <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/JSeyff/status/1877755409571684399″>tickets only.
I feel like a lot of people are afraid to admit this, or just don't want to, but ETFs were bitcoin's most significant moment over the course of 2024. Looking back on the year, it seems like everything that happened to bitcoin's favor was after these approvals. Let me explain to you.
The six major events that happened in 2024 were as follows:
- Spot bitcoin ETF Approval by the SEC
- Donald Trump promises the United States to adopt bitcoin
- MicroStrategy and other companies adopt bitcoin
- $100,000 price milestone
- Gary Gensler resigns from SEC
- halving
When BlackRock <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1669449336642588672″>filed for your ETF towards the end of the bear market in 2023, that marked the beginning of the new bull market for me. We immediately saw a stampede of other large asset managers rushing to apply for an ETF as well, and the price of bitcoin has risen since: the price of bitcoin was $24,900 when BlackRock introduced its ETF, then it was $46,000 when it was approved. , and today we are sitting at just under $100,000.
The main factor of interest and greater adoption of bitcoin is its price, not its utility. Large price increases attract the most eyeballs, new capital funds, and generate more interest in the asset overall. When the price of bitcoin drops, all the tourists leave and only the HODLers remain.
bitcoin ETFs driving up the price historically helped set the stage for Donald Trump to embrace it. bitcoin was no longer just magical internet money for a small group of people on the internet, it was now backed by the world's largest asset managers, BlackRock and Fidelity. The massive amounts of inflows of these products were like a tsunami, showing how much demand there really was for bitcoin and the new financial direction of our country. It showed that this is an industry that will grow exponentially, and I think Trump, like many of the other politicians, including senators and congressmen, realized that it was better to fight with us than against us.
Now that the price is rising with the backing of larger asset managers and a new pro-bitcoin administration coming to the White House, this gave MicroStrategy and other corporations the green light to delve deeper into the asset. And that's exactly what happened.
Michael Saylor increased MicroStrategy's bitcoin purchases like never before and has no signs of slowing down in 2025. His stock outperforming bitcoin had caught the attention of countless other publicly traded companies that copied the 'bitcoin for corporations', all of which adds more buying pressure to bitcoin, boosting the asset further. MicroStrategy is raising more than $42 billion to buy more bitcoins to get ahead of everyone who doesn't own any yet; This huge increase in demand and regulatory certainty is causing a FOMO frenzy in bitcoin hoarders.
All of this combined, including the halving event where the production of new bitcoins created was halved to just 3,125 btc per block, sent us to a new all-time high of over $108,000. The high buying demand on most days completely offsets the amount of new coins mined, driving the price up even further. Just the other day, the BlackRock ETF alone bought over 6,078 bitcoins, while miners only generated 450 new bitcoins. There are not enough bitcoins to go around and they are not producing more than 21 million coins.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet”>
NEW: BlackRock Spot <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bitcoin?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#bitcoin ETF bought 6,078 bitcoins today, while miners only mined 450 new bitcoins.
Absolute. Shortage. pic.twitter.com/KkHGpP2WAL
—Nikolaus Hoffman (@NikolausHoff) <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/NikolausHoff/status/1876841056420892838?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 8, 2025
The success of these ETFs and the change in presidential administration spelled bad news for the SEC and other anti-bitcoin regulators and politicians. Gary Gensler, who helped delay the approval of spot ETFs for years, is officially leaving the SEC. The two Democratic SEC commissioners who voted against approval will also leave the commission. And it looks like bitcoin is now preparing to thrive in the United States for the next four years without coming under fire from the regulators and politicians who have held this industry back for so long.
ETFs were a big moment for this industry and things probably would have been very different if they hadn't been approved. The price of bitcoin would likely be much lower than it is today, and we might even have had a different winner in the US presidential election if it hadn't passed. Many wonderful things happened in favor of bitcoin last year, and it all followed the ETF approvals.
This article is a Carry. The opinions expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of btc Inc or bitcoin Magazine.
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