I have a very tiny amount of bitcoin myself and researched whether or not to enter the market with much more capital before the end of the year, but this discovery makes me very reluctant due to earlier experience with wall street. A small investor should not underestimate the psychological warfare that this institution is capable of.
I have to admit that I don't completely understand the interaction between futures and spot markets. A veteran trader that I follow mentioned that since CME and other regulated futures will be cash-settled, that it would be difficult for institutional players to manipulate the market. I'd love for someone to shed some light on why that may (or may not) be true.
Bitcoin is about to be usurped by very powerful entities with a long history of global wealth management, and the bitcoin community is primed for manipulation according to simple psychological principles that no amount of sophisticated tech can protect you from. I don't have a solution to this dilemma yet but I will study it and I think real discussion and awareness is appropriate.
For those long term investors who buy using dollar averaging this does not apply, however my personal view of bitcoin only apply to medium term, long term it is likely that something with great utility to society will replace fiat within the next 5 to 10 years.
What makes you so sure that the spot markets will follow US futures markets? Why not the other way around? I tend to agree that Wall Street and institutional players can add painful volatility, running stops and margin calls on smaller traders easily. But long term, the circulating supply of BTC is too limited to suppress for long.
