Elaine Ou, Columnist

Bitcoin Whales Are a Mixed Blessing

Institutional investors will help stabilize the price, but also remove the protective benefits of decentralization.

February 28, 2021 at 9:00 PM UTC

Elaine Ou is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a blockchain engineer at Global Financial Access in San Francisco. Previously she was a lecturer in the electrical and information engineering department at the University of Sydney.

It only looks simple.
Photographer: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

No sooner did Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warn about Bitcoin’s inefficiency early last week than the cryptocurrency prices tanked. They were already falling, yet, for some, the price movement was a demonstration of the exact volatility Yellen was criticizing.

For others, like Square and MicroStrategy Inc., it was an opportunity to buy the dip, with words of encouragement from Ark Investment Fund’s Cathie Wood, a Bitcoin bull.