It’s Easier Than Ever to Buy Bitcoin. Here’s Why You Shouldn’t.
Wall Street is peddling new products that let you trade the cryptocurrency like a stock. And the price is spiking. But that doesn’t make it a real investment.
ESQUIRE
PUBLISHED: MAR 25, 2024
Bitcoin is finally legit. Hooray! Time to load up. That’s the message, anyway, that crypto enthusiasts heard earlier this year when Wall Street’s regulator approved the issuance of bitcoin exchange-traded funds, or ETFs—investments that can be bought and sold like stocks. At last, the previously naysaying Securities and Exchange Commission had endorsed bitcoin, signaling a new beginning for the popular if much-maligned digital asset.
Its backers had good reason to believe bitcoin’s time had come and that the buzzy cryptocurrency could take its deserved place in the pantheon of worthy investment vehicles. No longer would the bitcoin-curious need to keep track of complicated passwords—made up of long strings of letters and numbers—for their coins or rely on the likes of Sam Bankman-Fried to oversee their trades.
While it’s true that investors can now bet on bitcoin in the same humdrum way they buy shares of Microsoft or the S&P 500, the reality is that bitcoin’s legitimacy remains a tenuous affair.
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