Crypto Biz: Bitcoin whales trade keys for comfort

Early BTC whales shift to ETFs, giving up keys for TradFi perks, as BlackRock conversions rise and onchain self-custody breaks a 15-year uptrend.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) long-time whales, once the fiercest champions of self-custody, may be losing some of their grip on the market as more migrate toward the comforts of traditional finance. Earlier this week, a BlackRock executive revealed that several of Bitcoin’s earliest holders are quietly swapping portions of their spot positions for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), gaining access to broader wealth management tools in the process.

While ETFs and spot Bitcoin have traditionally served different audiences, onchain data suggests the rise of spot ETFs may be coming at the expense of self-custody. According to analyst Willy Woo, the amount of self-custodied Bitcoin recently broke a 15-year uptrend, just as ETF adoption accelerated.

In this week’s Crypto Biz, we look at Bitcoin whales’ turn toward TradFi, Ripple’s latest public market play, Galaxy Digital’s standout Q3 earnings and Wise’s potential stablecoin expansion.

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