I think so.
A while back, I started a thread about who might be part of this system:
Saylor has created a fiat system on top of BitcoinBut I think this goes far beyond Strategy. Just as happened with gold and silver back then, Wall Street has been able to manipulate scarcity through futures, loans, swaps, or perpetual contracts. I've mentioned this theory in passing in a few threads, but I think it deserves its own thread. Otherwise, it's hard to explain why the last few years have been by far the worst in terms of returns. In a market where the only way to trade was to buy or sell Bitcoin for cash, without any derivatives involved, I think the price would have gone much higher in 2025 and for much of this year.
What do you think?
I tried finding the real gap here, but I could not find any reliable numbers to mention. BlackRock holds a considerable amount of BTC, and I doubt if they ever have paper BTC, but that's not confirmed because I found no good source to support the claim that they have not done it. Maybe they created BTC on paper. But I am pretty much sure BlackRock's services like futures, perpetual contracts, etc. are backed by real BTC, not paper BTC.
Although, I did find one example in which an ETF company providing futures services
owns zero BTC, and the business they are doing is in billions.
ProShares (BITO) holds 0 BTC, but its overall BTC futures and swap exposure is around
$1.292 billion. They hold cash and money market investments as collateral. Their prospectus also explicitly says they don't directly invest in BTC.
The Fund does not invest directly in bitcoin.
Visit page 3, first paragraphSo, bro, I think we already have our answer here. If bigger companies have way more BTC than the exposure they are providing, then there are companies like BITO that have zero BTC but are giving people exposure to billions of dollars worth of BTC. I am sure there will be more, but we already have our answer now.
If they invested in real BTC instead of giving exposure through paper BTC, then the price would have increased.