{"id":73640,"date":"2026-02-23T23:01:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=73640"},"modified":"2026-02-23T23:01:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:01:33","slug":"has-wall-street-co-opted-bitcoin-bloomberg-expert-sparks-heated-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=73640","title":{"rendered":"Has Wall Street Co-Opted Bitcoin? Bloomberg Expert Sparks Heated Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A thread sparked by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas reignited one of crypto\u2019s oldest arguments: whether Bitcoin\u2019s core value proposition has been diluted as institutional intermediaries take center stage. What began as a reflection on crypto\u2019s real-world utility quickly turned into a pointed dispute over whether BTC can credibly be called \u201cdebasement-resistant\u201d while it remains wildly volatile.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin Identity Debate Explodes on X<\/h2>\n

Balchunas weighed in<\/a> after Cooper Turley, founder of Coop Records, posted that crypto feels \u201cin the weirdest spot\u201d since 2017 and that beyond speculation it\u2019s \u201chard to see how it adds meaningful value to people\u2019s lives.\u201d Balchunas\u2019 response framed Bitcoin\u2019s novelty less as a product category and more as a monetary property set.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing this a lot. My two cents: the novel value of bitcoin is that it is user-run money that is both censorship and debasement-resistant,\u201d Balchunas wrote. \u201cFar as I can tell nothing has changed about that. However bc the current admin is so on board with it, the censorship part may seem less valuable, but just wait a few yrs, that could come in handy (it already does in many emerging\/frontier mkt countries).. and debasement is alive and well, even dogs know that ain\u2019t ever stopping.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that Bitcoin\u2019s \u201cyouth\u201d is a major driver of volatility, and that market price tends to hijack the narrative. \u201cPrice is a smoke screen that the most successful investors have learned to see through\/ignore,\u201d he added, extending the critique to traditional markets as well.<\/p>\n

The \u201cco-opted\u201d question surfaced explicitly when Balchunas addressed long-time holders uneasy with BTC being increasingly accessed through Wall Street wrappers. His take: the asset didn\u2019t change; the gatekeepers did.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for the OGs feeling like the establishment has co-opted their \u2018outsider\u2019 money.. all that really happened was the intermediaries got upgraded,\u201d Balchunas wrote. \u201cYou went from paying high fees to SBF<\/a> only for him to \u2018lose\u2019 your money to Larry Fink et al,<\/a> who do same thing (outsourced your btc) but in a way that\u2019s much cheaper and safer. Underlying btc hasn\u2019t changed at all the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is Bitcoin Still A Debasement-Trade?<\/h2>\n

That framing didn\u2019t satisfy critics who see Bitcoin\u2019s volatility as fatal to the \u201cdebasement-resistant\u201d label. Host of Chicago Future of Finance Oliver Renick pushed back sharply, arguing that a money that can swing the way Bitcoin does is effectively experiencing repeated \u201cdebasement events\u201d by any practical standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cDebasement-resistant is biggest error here IMO,\u201d Renick wrote. \u201cIf the dollar were down as much as btc can do on any given week, the world would go nuts, i.e, bitcoins volatility goes thru a debasement event like 3 times a year compared to the dollar where a 2% is a big deal. It\u2019s rly bad money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balchunas conceded the point partially on timeframe: \u201cI think more longer term but it\u2019s a fair point\u201d but the exchange escalated when Renick questioned Bitcoin\u2019s staying power. \u201cAnd there it gets crushed again versus dollar and gold. Bitcoin may not make it to its 20th birthday, who knows,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Balchunas responded by pointing to recent performance as evidence that Bitcoin has \u201cbanked\u201d substantial gains, citing \u201c2023 and 2024\u201d and \u201c450%.\u201d Renick\u2019s rebuttal remained categorical: \u201cAgain , volatility intolerable of money.\u201d Balchunas agreed Bitcoin is \u201ctoo volatile rn to be widespread currency\u201d and needs to \u201cmature and settle down,\u201d but rejected the conclusion that this reduces Bitcoin to censorship resistance alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that leaves you with just censorship resistance,\u201d Renick wrote, suggesting that value might be far lower \u2014 \u201cmaybe $10k a coin\u201d \u2014 before Balchunas returned to first principles: \u201cIt is debasement resistant, govt can\u2019t dilute it- that\u2019s true even if it is volatile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balchunas closed by challenging the idea that shorter windows are dispositive, contrasting gold\u2019s \u201c20%\u201d rise in \u201c2023 + 2024\u201d with Bitcoin\u2019s \u201c450%\u201d move, and returning to the \u201cyoung asset\u201d thesis: it \u201cgets ahead of itself then falls.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thread leaves a familiar fault line exposed. For Balchunas, institutional plumbing doesn\u2019t change Bitcoin\u2019s properties, and volatility is a maturity problem that can coexist with long-term dilution resistance. For critics, volatility isn\u2019t a side effect, it\u2019s the disqualifier, collapsing the \u201cmoney\u201d narrative and forcing a narrower censorship-resistance-only valuation debate.<\/p>\n

At press time, BTC traded at $66,207.<\/p>\n

\"Bitcoin<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A thread sparked by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas reignited one of crypto\u2019s oldest arguments: whether Bitcoin\u2019s core value proposition has been diluted as institutional intermediaries take center stage. What began as a reflection on crypto\u2019s real-world utility quickly turned into a pointed dispute over whether BTC can credibly be called \u201cdebasement-resistant\u201d while it remains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-73640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}