5% of Bitcoin ETF Profits? That’s Cool! But What’s the Catch?

TL;DR

• This latest announcement from investment firm VanEck has us asking the question, ‘what’s the catch?’

• On Friday, VanEck pledged 5% of potential profits from its spot Bitcoin ETF (if it gets approved), to Bitcoin core developers at ​Brink​.

• Maybe this is just an honest-to-goodness well-intentioned donation, made in the hopes news publications (hi 👋) will write about it? If so, 5% seems like a steep sum to pay for a bit of positive press...

Full Story

You know those situations that make you go "that's cool...but what's the catch?"

E.g. Winning a car on a game show (👈 that's cool!)

...then finding out you're going to have to pay 30% of the cars retail value in taxes (👈 aaaand there's the catch).

Yeah, well, this latest announcement from investment firm VanEck has us asking the same question.

On Friday, VanEck pledged 5% of potential profits from its spot Bitcoin ETF (if it gets approved), to Bitcoin core developers at ​Brink​, with the message:

"Your tireless dedication to ​decentralization​ and innovation is the cornerstone of the Bitcoin ecosystem, and we're here to support it—more details to come"

Which is very cool!

But we're struggling to connect the dots and see what's in it for VanEck...

Cause (donation or no donation) Bitcoin developers and general crypto natives aren't going to recommend the purchase of Bitcoin via an ETF - they're going to recommend direct purchases and ​self custody​.

Whereas investors from the world of traditional finance aren't going to care about donations to the hard working devs that have made Bitcoin what it is today - they're only going to care if adding it to their portfolio will be of benefit.

Here's our best guess at what's happening here:

Maybe it's just an honest-to-goodness well-intentioned donation, made in the hopes news publications (hi 👋) will write about it?

If so, 5% seems like a steep sum to pay for a bit of positive press...

But hell, if it means Bitcoin devs getting some of that sweet sweet Bitcoin ETF money - we'll gladly oblige!