Without a doubt the market is changing and we no longer have the same privacy we had a few years ago, however this is only a point of contention for those that consider bitcoin to be more than just another way to make some money and think of it as a tool to regain their freedoms back.

So for the majority of the traders losing their privacy is not real a motive of concern, and they are willing to give it away as long as they can get the profits they are looking for.

The crypto space is becoming more dynamic and complex. A few years ago nobody thought that multibillion-dollar institutions would be scrambling to have a share in the Bitcoin space. Now many powerful players are seeking to control some segments of the market. The market is a free one so anyone has the right to take advantage of the opportunities that Bitcoin offers. From all indications, the market will get more centralized because these agencies and investors will have the power to control the market especially if the spot Bitcoin ETF is approved.

For now, nobody can stop the approval of these ETF applications except the SEC, which means there is nothing you or I can do to stop this centralization. But we can always protect our freedom and privacy through available means. These investors are putting in more money in the sector which has affected the price of Bitcoin positively, we will take advantage of it to make some profit but I will never hand over my keys to these institutional middlemen.

Yep, I agree, with or without ETF, we must continue. I believe that Bitcoin seems to have become used to ETF rejections in the U.S. Over time it has become normal.
So for me, it's fine. But if it is approved, much better because ETF will make Bitcoin more popular and possibly gain more volume.

Just want to point out the obvious: the market has no say in an ETF getting approved. That is up to the SEC. The market is HOPING for an approval, not showing anything about the likelihood of approval. Nothing about what the market is doing makes an ETF approval an almost certainty, or anything else. The market reacts, it does not make the rules. It is certainly very possible the SEC continues to reject everything and everyone just hoping and assuming an ETF would get approved soon would be wrong.

It terms of the market reaction is an ETF does indeed get approval at some point next year...I expect the immediate reaction would be a large spike upwards, perhaps multiple thousands of dollars, followed by the inrush of people trying to crash the price or simply just taking profit on the spike. So I think it'd go up a bunch and then go down a bunch, but ultimately when the dust cleared over a few days the price would settle a good amount higher than where it started. Then of course when an ETF actually starts operating the ETF will likely be buying up several billion dollars of Bitcoin in a matter of weeks so that will cause another strong surge.

How is the market showing that, maybe you mean that so many people think an approval is on its way, because from what i have been reading lately, so many bitcoiners think that an approval is a matter of when and not if. If a spot etf is approved in the U.S., it would be the first ever to be approved in the U.S. market, so we cannot predict how the market will react based on past events, because there is none, but people can't help but believe that there will be a pump in the price of BTC.

When we talk about centralized exchanges, so many of us talk about not your keys, not your keys, but why is the case with etf's different? I don't see too many people bringing up that phrase when we mention spot etf's.

I don’t think it’s the retail traders that are causing all this bull moves. Look at coinbase today, someone market bought like 500 BTC and it touched $45000 only on that exchange. It seems there is a huge demand in short time and almost no supply, at least right now.

Look at Bitmex open interest, last week at $38K someone opened a $200M long. This is obviously some fund and not a retail trader. We also had that weekend pump last time. I assumed it would fade but it was a real move. There is also Tether and every week about $1B is added to the crypto markets.

Is that spot buying or futures buying? If it is futures buying then we might be in this time of the pump where the market might have become overleveraged. These traders might need to close their trades if the pump does not continue or they might get liquidated if the market dumps and causes a cascade of liquidations.

BlackRock, Bitwise File Updated Applications for Spot Bitcoin ETF

BlackRock’s amended filing included clarifications on topics such as the Trust’s structure and potential regulatory impacts on it.

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/12/05/blackrock-bitwise-file-updated-application-for-spot-bitcoin-etf/amp/