Blackrock’s Bitcoin ETF to Fuel Price Surge, Says Crypto Banter Host

• Blackrock’s recent Bitcoin ETF filing has attracted significant attention, with some suspecting ill-intent behind the move.
• Crypto Banter host Ran Neuner dismisses such suspicions, predicting that the Bitcoin ETF could spur a price surge, doubling Bitcoin’s value by next year.

Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, has recently filed an application for a spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This move has stimulated vigorous debate within the cryptocurrency community, particularly in light of the recent enforcement actions, dubbed “Chokepoint 2.0”, targeting influential players in the crypto sector.

Despite circulating rumors suggesting Blackrock’s Bitcoin ETF application could be part of a coordinated attack on the crypto market, Ran Neuner, host of Crypto Banter, believes there is no malicious intent behind Blackrock’s move. In a recent interview with Michelle Makori, lead anchor for Kitco News, Neuner dismissed such theories as baseless, arguing that owning a significant portion of Bitcoin does not equate to control over the decentralized system.

Neuner defended his stance by explaining,

“Whether or not one party owns all the bitcoin won’t make bitcoin centralized. The only way that that can change is if the majority of the miners, over 50 percent of the miners around the world, agree that the rules need to change… Regardless of who owns the bitcoin, the mining still remains decentralized.”

Moreover, Neuner ventured a bullish prediction about the impact of Blackrock’s Bitcoin ETF on the digital asset’s price. He believes that the ETF, along with the impending Bitcoin halving scheduled for April 20, 2024, could cause the value of Bitcoin to soar, potentially doubling its current price. He underscored that the ETF would facilitate the influx of capital into the crypto market, calling it a potential “game-changer”.

Neuner’s optimistic forecast echoes the excitement of many within the crypto space. However, there have been past instances where the approval of a spot gold ETF by the U.S. in 2004 was followed by accusations of price manipulation and suppression.

In the same interview, Neuner also spoke about various U.S. presidential candidates, including Francis Suarez, Ron DeSantis, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have shown support for Bitcoin. He sees this rising wave of political endorsement for Bitcoin as a positive trend that thrusts the crypto discussion into the limelight. As Neuner puts it,

“The market is telling you, and the politicians are telling you, that bitcoin is an election issue.”