The best way to get into Crypto from a traditional brokerage account is GBTC. It tracks mainly BTC and Ethereum. It is not a perfect match though, sometimes you pay a premium and sometimes you get a discount to the underlying cryptos. Currently it is at nearly a 18% discount where earlier in the year it was at a 10% premium (GBTC is currently 50.87, BTC is $59,515).
This is by no means a GREAT way to do it, just the best option currently if you are looking at crypto from a US based brokerage account.
Wow, I figured it always traded at a premium. 18% discount is huge, am I missing some downside of this arb opportunity (buy GBTC sell short BTC or BTC futures)?
GBTC has no redemption mechanism, you can wrap more BTC into GBTC but not the other way around. For ETFs this is what solves the arb.
You can do your arb but you still need to offload GBTC at some point and the only option is to another buyer of GBTC.
>The best way to get into Crypto from a traditional brokerage account is GBTC
So this is basically 100% speculation, because you can't even use the crypto you "purchase"? You're just hoping for prices to go up. How does that make sense for a purported currency? If people aren't using it, what is the value?
That isn't a very good argument. You might as well ask why do people invest in ETF's and mutual funds. The answer is because they view them as assets that will increase in value.
For me the most important aspect of decentralized assets is separation between money and state; challenging government monopoly power over money.
That said, there are conveniences and advantages to centralization. Centralized exchanges help supply and demand meet quickly and efficiently.
I think its possible for those systems to live together productively. There is freedom when I choose to trust and consent to other willing parties to take control of my assets. The problem arises when we are compelled to give up control by force of law.
This is by no means a GREAT way to do it, just the best option currently if you are looking at crypto from a US based brokerage account.