Author: Jeff roberts@Fortune, Compiler: Qin Jin, Carbon Chain Value
As more and more Wall Street people flock to Bitcoin. The critics are getting older. There are fewer and fewer people.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they criticize you." This famous quote, often mistaken for Gandhi, has been circulating in one form or another for at least a century. In recent years Become a rallying cry for cryptocurrency believers. There’s a problem, though. When it comes to Bitcoin, the number of powerful people who want to fight it is dwindling so fast that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell who is David and who is Goliath.
A new report from Bloomberg makes this clear. The report lays out how many of Bitcoin’s erstwhile rivals on Wall Street have adopted an “if you can’t beat them, join them” stance in response to the massive inflow into Bitcoin products following the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF in January. Recent converts to Bitcoin include big established banks such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo.
As Bloomberg said: As cryptocurrencies have surged in recent weeks, Wall Street’s once resistance to it is fading. Bitcoin is once again surging to all-time highs that shocked old guard just a few years ago. It is clear to many academics that the underlying demand for Bitcoin from people young and old, rich and poor, is so strong and stable that the cornerstone of Bitcoin as an asset class will not collapse.
At the moment, it’s hard to find high-profile people willing to give up on Bitcoin altogether — or at least those who are too young to collect a Social Security check. These include 93-year-old Warren Buffett, who "Bitcoin is rat poison squared", and 74-year-old Senator Elizabeth Warren, the scourge of the industry. Currently, the youngest prominent Bitcoin antagonist is JPMorgan Chase’s 67-year-old CEO Jamie Dimon, who likes to bash Bitcoin but whose own bank has been experimenting with blockchain for years.
If you look deeper for Bitcoin’s enemies, you’ll find that they are all environmentalists who oppose Bitcoin’s energy consumption. They have a point—Bitcoin does require a lot of electricity, but a lot of that electricity comes from the environment, especially U.S. Bitcoin miners, who account for a growing share of total Bitcoin production. Green critics are also less influential than big banks, which appear more like allies of Bitcoin than enemies.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s popularity will only grow in the coming times, simply because companies like BlackRock and Fidelity are incorporating Bitcoin directly or indirectly in the portfolios of millions of investors. Like other investors, these new Bitcoin holders will likely put aside any philosophical objections they may have and just hope that Bitcoin prices rise.
Finally, when it comes to Bitcoin’s enemies, the final boss is looking less formidable by the day. By “big boss” I mean nation-states, which can cause real trouble for cryptocurrencies. However, young politicians are more likely to be optimistic about Bitcoin than politicians in their 70s and 80s, and even directly hold some Bitcoins. This will make it harder for countries to "ban Bitcoin" or whatever. At the same time, don’t be surprised if some countries have already accumulated small Bitcoin positions in their global reserves.
The most important thing is that Bitcoin has defeated many powerful critics and once again proved that it is here to stay.