Institutional players and executives have transformed bitcoin from a cypherpunk protest into a mainstream financial play dominated by regulated, permissioned securities. Formerly rebellious communities have embraced leverage, financial engineering, and treasury-driven strategies to maximize bitcoin-per-share. Corporate treasuries and hundreds of companies are raising cheap fiat to buy bitcoin, prioritizing balance-sheet metrics over traditional profit measures. Conferences now attract political figures and financial engineers rather than self-custody advocates. Market behavior reflects a rush to capitalize on bitcoin via securities and engineered vehicles, with capital markets flooded by firms pursuing growth in bitcoin holdings at scale.
We, the nerdy outsiders who were once dead-set on building a new and improved world have become cheerleaders for regulated, permissioned securities - neatly levered up and financially engineered for maximum bitcoin-per-share. The laws of financial gravity rudely shoved aside, even the staunchest rebellious hacker has given up most of their principles now that Wall Street is paying $2, $3, or $5 for a dollar of bitcoin.
The balance sheet is becoming the P&L, said Alexandre Laizet, CEO of Europe's largest treasury company on stage. He wasn't merely saying that treasury companies are now banks, using their balance sheets to eke out profits; he meant that the only thing that matters to bitcoin treasury companies is the balance sheet itself. Profits are of no consequence when you've got bitcoin-per-infinitely printable share.
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