What JPMorgan, ETFs, and institutional adoption taught an old school investor
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Let me start with something I never imagined I’d write: at 70 years old, with four decades in finance behind me, I own Bitcoin.
Years ago, if you’d told me I’d be writing about cryptocurrency ownership, I would have laughed. Bitcoin was for tech bros, speculators, and people who didn’t understand real investing. I’d spent my entire career building wealth through stocks and bonds. Why would I need some digital currency that nobody could explain without using ten acronyms?
But here’s the thing about being in this business for 40 years: you learn to recognize when you’re wrong. And I was wrong about Bitcoin.
How a skeptic changed his mind
My Bitcoin journey started where most skepticism begins: with my grandson. Last Christmas, he tried explaining cryptocurrency to me over dinner. I nodded politely while thinking about tulip bulbs and dot com bubbles.
But something nagged at me afterward. In my four decades, I’d witnessed the rise of personal computers, the internet, smartphones, and countless innovations that seemed impossible until they weren’t. I remembered dismissing email in the early 90s.
So I started reading. Not the breathless crypto blogs, but research from institutions I respected. What I found surprised me. This wasn’t just speculative fever anymore. Real money, managed by real professionals, was taking Bitcoin seriously.
When institutions start paying attention
The turning point came when I saw who was buying Bitcoin. JPMorgan, the same bank that called Bitcoin a fraud in 2017, now offers crypto services to clients. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America all have crypto trading desks.
MicroStrategy put Bitcoin on their corporate balance sheet. Tesla also bought Bitcoin, though later they sold most of their holdings. El Salvador made it legal tender. When central banks start studying digital currencies and countries begin adopting them, it’s hard to dismiss this as just a fad.
The data started looking less like a bubble and more like early adoption of a new asset class. I’ve seen this pattern before with emerging markets, and other investments that seemed risky until they became mainstream.
The regulatory risk still concerns me. China banned Bitcoin, India threatens restrictions, and unlike gold, Bitcoin can’t be completely hidden from governments that control networks and banking. But that’s exactly why institutional adoption matters. When JPMorgan and BlackRock have billions invested, when pension funds hold Bitcoin ETFs, outright bans become much more complicated.
The digital gold argument
For years, I couldn’t understand what Bitcoin actually was. The most common explanation I heard was “digital gold,” and I’ll admit there are some similarities. Both are scarce, can’t be debased by governments, and don’t depend on any company’s performance.
But here’s where I part ways with the digital gold crowd: Bitcoin behaves nothing like the gold.
The biggest difference hit me during the March 2020 crash. Gold held steady while everything else fell apart. Bitcoin? It crashed right alongside stocks, dropping 50% in weeks. That’s the opposite of what you want from a safe haven.
Gold rarely moves more than 2% in a day. Bitcoin can swing 20% before lunch. At 70, I don’t need that excitement from my “insurance” holdings. So while Bitcoin shares some characteristics with gold, calling it digital gold is misleading. Understanding this difference is why I keep my Bitcoin allocation small and treat it as speculation, not portfolio insurance.
Bitcoin joins the big leagues
Here’s a fact that surprised me: Bitcoin is now one of the world’s top 10 most valuable assets by market capitalization. It’s worth more than most major corporations and sits alongside companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google.
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The launch of Bitcoin ETFs was another milestone. Suddenly, I could buy Bitcoin exposure through my regular brokerage account, just like buying an S&P 500 fund. No crypto exchanges, no digital wallets, no private keys to lose.
The BlackRock and Fidelity Bitcoin ETFs have attracted billions in assets within months of launching. That’s not day traders; that’s pension funds, endowments, and financial advisors adding Bitcoin exposure to traditional portfolios.
How much should a 70 year old own
Let me be clear: I’m not betting the farm on Bitcoin. At 70, my risk tolerance isn’t what it was at 40. But complete avoidance of an emerging asset class seemed like a different kind of risk.
I allocated 3% of my portfolio to Bitcoin through an ETF. That’s enough to participate if it continues growing, but not enough to derail my retirement if it goes to zero.
Why 3%? It’s small enough that I can sleep at night if it crashes, but large enough to matter if Bitcoin continues gaining adoption. I have no…