Now that 2025 is nearly in the books, I thought I'd write a reflection piece. When the first Bitcoin ETFs launch in January 2024, the game changed. It marked the beginning of a new chapter in Bitcoin, when large financial institutions began backing the cryptocurrency that offered an alternative to the legacy banking system. It's really kind of strange. Kind of a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" moment when financial professionals are putting on the "crypto bro" hat.

So what exactly does this mean for Bitcoin? In my opinion, the project has now strayed from its roots as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system and turned into a store of value for wealthy. That appears to be where we're headed anyway. Whether this "store of value" is just a phase in the Bitcoin saga or if it becomes the status quo is yet to be seen. As someone who has seen the BTC story unfold since 2010, I'm still amazed that we've arrived at this moment.

What Michael Saylor has created with Strategy is pretty incredible: perpetually selling equity in the company to investors for traditional capital (US Dollars) to then buy digital capital (Bitcoin) and pay investors monthly dividends, while the company continues to stack BTC. Some might argue that Strategy has been what's propping up the price of Bitcoin, certainly a major factor. Bitcoin ETF inflows have been responsible for major moves, too. In fact, a key trailing indicator for price movement is checking on net Bitcoin ETF inflow.

All the while, coins are disappearing from exchanges and being hoarded by Strategy and other digital asset treasury companies (DATs), countries, and individuals alike. Exchanges, Strategy, the companies behind the ETFs and are in the Bitcoin business. They're out to make money, and may or may not have any regard for the Bitcoin Network itself. But here's the deal: they want the trades to happen, they want the inflows. They thrive off of panic selling and mass liquidations. The price of Bitcoin becomes irrelevant.

So year-to-date, as of this writing, the price of BTC is down 12%

I would credit "big money" flowing in for this price movement. And actually, as I see it, this is accumulation. The "digital gold rush" remains stronger than ever. I get the impression that those large institutions are trying to frustrate individual hodlers out of their Bitcoin. Perhaps a touch of paranoia on my part? Maybe. But why then has the tide turned so much regarding Bitcoin and crypto, both regulatory-wise and allocation-wise?

Satoshi did us all a favor in essentially "burning" 1.1 million of the supply by keeping them in over 30,000 different wallets and not moving them. Could there be activity in a Satoshi wallet someday? Maybe, who knows. But perhaps he considered a hostile takeover of Bitcoin by a single entity. 

I find it interesting that United State entities (federal government, ETFs, public & private companies, DeFi products) now hodl approximately 2,771,732 BTC, according to data compiled by BiTBO. That's 13% of the 21 million supply. If you use the estimate of actual usable supply (which accounts for coins that are forever lost), 17 to 18 million -- we'll say 17.5 million to split the difference, US entities own 15.8% of the world's accessible BTC.

The saga continues...

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