CEOs Corner: Liquidity follows utility - the trend for 2024

BTC 4TW

The bitcoin ETF is not about legitimacy. It’s about integration.

Blackrock, Invesco, Fidelity et al pursing a BTC ETF indicates legitimacy is already here. They aren’t risking hard earned reputations on a dud.

Rather this ETF is about integration. It moves bitcoin into the investment mainstream. Fidelity Digital Assets described BTC as an “entry point for traditional allocators” to gain exposure to the asset class. We can expect to see liquidity follow utility into this sector.

Locally, it provides greater context for the ASX to list a spot bitcoin ETF. This cracks opens cryptocurrency to both retail and institutional investors via a traditional financial product. It is also reasonable to assume that this will expand crypto markets in general, as liquidity follows utility. So while this is an historic day for the industry, the impacts will be increasingly felt over time.

2024 Expectations

We can expect the reset to a ‘new normal’ in conversation on crypto this year.

Bitcoin will dominate the first two quarters of 2024, with ETF talk moving to the fourth Halving expected in April. They have historically predicated a bull run in the sector. These two events combined suggest a robust BTC narrative for H1’24.

Stability in inflation numbers will feed into interest rate decisions, whetting risk appetites in major markets across 2024. During the bear, big finance moved into blockchain, digital assets and crypto. We’ll start to see that impact in 2024.

For all the talk of “froth” in crypto, markets are well off where they were in 2021 in terms of trade number and size. This is a start of a new cycle with greater stability in the markets and participants.

Caroline Bowler

CEO, BTC Markets

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