What do you think about ETF's? Could they help reduce crypto scam rate

[Troytech]

Honestly I'm still trying to wrap my head around the amount of money that scammers are making each year from cryptoscams in all their nature. So I was thinking if bitcoin ETF could help reduce that percentage even if by only a bit this year, so I want to hear everyone thoughts on this.

 But first I'll like to bring to the table that scam only prevail where there is ignorance or lack of knowledge and most times greed, it takes advantage of people that have heard the interesting testimonials about bitcoin but don't know about how to Start, so they end up falling for anyone that brings them a solution. And I think at least 15% of crypto scams are categoried under Investment scams and social media scams which may have same procedures or patterns. If you have ever been targeted or attacked before by a scammer before you would know that they always tend to bring a solution to your ignorance and give you an outrageous offer which is also part of their strategy.

If I'm not mistaken ETF serves as a vehicle for people that doesn't want to go through the extra of learning how to invest or trade in bitcoin themselves and would rather rely on trusted firms or exchanges to do it for them. And I think a little percentage of scammed individuals fall under this category, and if they had trusted companies earlier, that they could rely on would not have fallen for scammers.

While this might be true I'm also thinking that it could worsen the case of crypto scams because more investors would now have trust in bitcoin, even the regular small business native woman at my neighbourhood who doesn't have much idea about bitcoin who just heard the news that bitcoin ETF has been approved by the sec, would at the end of the day become prey for another scammer cause it all boils down to the fact that she doesn't have any knowledge about bitcoin or how it works.

What do you think about this would it help out or worsen the case, or do you think it would have no effect on the current crypto scam rate?

[mk4]

I guess we can make that assumption? The simple fact that some tech-illiterate people don't need to create exchange accounts but instead buy using their brokerage accounts(which don't have Bitcoin on-chain withdrawals available) can mean we'll have fewer retail hacks. I don't think the effect is that big though.

[SamReomo]

What do you think about this would it help out or worsen the case, or do you think it would have no effect on the current crypto scam rate?

Of course someone with scamming mentality can take advantage of the situation and tries his/her best to scam the ones who are about to start investing in Bitcoin. Those people aren't aware of ETFs a lot and that's why they will try to know about Bitcoin directly instead of searching for the ETFs and if someone with scamming mentality somehow finds such people then he/she will surely take advantage of them.

But, most of the crypto scams are only taking place because people aren't aware about such scams. They can only be safe from such scams if someone educate them about those scams and promote awareness related to such scams. The ones who might join this forum in search of Bitcoin investment will surely be safe from those scams but the ones who may ask someone's help in purchasing of Bitcoin could be targeted by the scammers.

Bitcoin ETFs can of course be purchased from the legit trading platforms and this the amount of scamming with those will be low as compare to other crypto related scams.

[lombok]

Scams will continue to grow no matter what. Even ETFs cannot guarantee 100 percent that someone will avoid a scam. The best thing to avoid scams is to protect ourselves in our own way, we need to know what a scam is and several types of scam schemes and have great curiosity to do further research in the case of purchasing or investing in an investment product. If we understand and know what we are going to invest or buy, the risk of being exposed to fraud will be smaller, but if our knowledge is low and we only rely on other people's words and fall for the sweet seduction of large investment returns, the risk of being exposed to a scam will be very large. Knowledge can protect yourself from scam activities.

[Troytech]

What do you think about this would it help out or worsen the case, or do you think it would have no effect on the current crypto scam rate?

But, most of the crypto scams are only taking place because people aren't aware about such scams. They can only be safe from such scams if someone educate them about those scams and promote awareness related to such scams. The ones who might join this forum in search of Bitcoin investment will surely be safe from those scams but the ones who may ask someone's help in purchasing of Bitcoin could be targeted by the scammers.
.

I searched on Google 'where can I learn about bitcoin or how to invest in it', all i saw where different blogs with basic information that would later refer you refer to a company they are Promoting, I didn't even see this forum as one of my search results and it bothers me cause, I know that a lot of people are looking for directions on how to go about bitcoin investment and that knowledge can only be found for free on this forum.

[Troytech]

Scams will continue to grow no matter what. Even ETFs cannot guarantee 100 percent that someone will avoid a scam. The best thing to avoid scams is to protect ourselves in our own way, we need to know what a scam is and several types of scam schemes and have great curiosity to do further research in the case of purchasing or investing in an investment product. If we understand and know what we are going to invest or buy, the risk of being exposed to fraud will be smaller, but if our knowledge is low and we only rely on other people's words and fall for the sweet seduction of large investment returns, the risk of being exposed to a scam will be very large. Knowledge can protect yourself from scam activities.

By 'We' I believe your referring to us here on this forum that already have knowledge about bitcoin at our disposal cause of the privilege of this forum, and the news of bitcoin ETF beign approved would go world wide even my grand ma would probably hear the news on her radio. So when your talking about protecting, I bet you there are still many ignorant people that doesn't even know the basics, talk less of protecting themselves and with the news of BITCOIN ETF APPROVAL a lot of them would gain interest in investing and might end up as pray for scammers cause the awareness of bitcoin as approved by the sec would even help further their ignorance with making haste decisions.
You replied as tho I was referring to people with knowledge about bitcoin, forgetting the majority that knows nothing

[Fundamentals Of]

This is probably one of the effects of a Bitcoin spot ETF. The good thing about it is that it is now being widely offered by the usual financial brokers and platforms. The players are the known, trusted, and old players in the financial world. They have been the figures in the financial sector for many years. So people have the option to gain exposure to Bitcoin through them. This is much better and safer than when they sign up through unknown and even unregistered exclusive crypto platforms.

[yhiaali3]

Yes, the approval of ETFs will increase investors significantly since they do not need to have experience or knowledge about Bitcoin to invest in these funds.
Fraudsters will always find a good opportunity to exploit people's ignorance and lack of knowledge about any investment, so I do not rule out that many people will fall victim to new investments and wishes to get rich quickly.

[spectre71]

Fraud via ETF will be nil, no more or less than any other ETF.

Holding keys for most businesses is frightening to impossible.

I love it now I can easily hold BTC in my IRA with ease. My 401k plan has very limited options, I wish it did  because the matching would be insane for my long term goals. I may be losing my job so that will change my tax bracket I will cash out and punch into my IRA, no tax in ten years when I retire. perfect

[adaseb]

Yeah I think for old people who want to invest in crypto an etf is much better than holding crypto on some CEX with no 2fa. Or they do self custody and end up losing their seed somehow.

Etfs are a great way to expose yourself to crypto without worrying about all the technical stuff you need to learn ahead of time to make sure you don’t lose your crypto. I think it will reduce scams.

[Kakmakr]

How will a regulated investment option help to reduce scams? The scammer still has the ability to bypass the regulated option and to use Bitcoin (BTC) or any other Alt coin as a payment option for their scam. 

Most of these scams operated way before Bitcoin existed and they used the highly regulated Banking system to make payments, so nothing stops them.

[SamReomo]

I searched on Google 'where can I learn about bitcoin or how to invest in it', all i saw where different blogs with basic information that would later refer you refer to a company they are Promoting, I didn't even see this forum as one of my search results and it bothers me cause, I know that a lot of people are looking for directions on how to go about bitcoin investment and that knowledge can only be found for free on this forum.

I searched the same on Google search engine and on top I found investopedia's article. If you haven't found that then you should give it a try. That article explains in detail that how to purchase Bitcoin from centralized and decentralized exchanges and also gives insights about storing of Bitcoin.

I know that you can get the best information on this forum but there are some more reliable sites that you can use to gain some information like Investopedia. I know that those sites aren't fully trusted for the reason that they promote the sites that pay them for promotion but for basic understanding those sites will also work for you.

[Solosanz]

Can you define what's the definition of scam?

For me scam is something that use to fool you regardless it's direct or indirectly.

The example of direct scams are: ponzi scheme, sell a fake coin, cloud mining, promote a scam exchange etc.

While the example of indirect scams are: most of altcoins which created for a sake of profit, staking program, P2P lending, centralized exchange, banks, fiat and ETFs. Why ETFs is scam? you're not holding the real coin and centralized entity could going to bankrupt.

[DanWalker]

What do you think about this would it help out or worsen the case, or do you think it would have no effect on the current crypto scam rate?

ETFs or even if we have hundreds of other regulations on cryptocurrencies, they cannot prevent scam in the market. As long as people cannot control their greed and still want to make money quickly, scam projects will always exist in many different forms. Furthermore, the ETF only applies to bitcoin and not the entire crypto market. Therefore, approval of bitcoin ETFs will not help reduce the rate of fraud in the market. And as I said, if fraud does not decrease and continues to increase, it is due to human greed and not the fault of bitcoin ETF approval.

[jcojci]

Basically, Bitcoin ETF provides both positive and negative sides. The positive side is that it gives people confidence to invest or trade Bitcoin. The downside is that it provides a new way for scammers to deceive people who have no knowledge or are too lazy to learn more. When people hear about the benefits that other people are getting, it creates curiosity in them, and they will immediately follow it without studying and finding out more.

That's what makes people deceived again by the same methods they have been using all this time. They don't want to learn what it is before they start so scammers can exploit this loophole to scam them. Scam cases will still exist, but if people are willing to learn before they use or join, they can prevent them from being scammed. By learning that, we have the knowledge to start so that we can avoid offers that we don't know about and that have the possibility of being scams.

[Crypt0Gore]

Let's say that, the ETF approval will bring trust and confidence for people who never trusted Bitcoin from the start, now many new investors will come into crypto but this approval is just for Bitcoin only, and we have thousands of crypto projects right now, so what do you think is going to become unchanged still? Scams will still be here, no matter what.

One good reason why is that some people want the new kids on the block, not Bitcoin, they want the x100 gains and that is impossible with Bitcoin, this is only possible in alternative coins and that's why alts space is the den of scammers in this crypto haven.

ETFs can't stop scam rate unless all crypto projects are going ETF and this is impossible, maybe few will, but many people will still invest in projects that are not ETF approved, before ETFs approvals, this has always been the way, nothing will change it.

[CODE200]

I guess we can make that assumption? The simple fact that some tech-illiterate people don't need to create exchange accounts but instead buy using their brokerage accounts(which don't have Bitcoin on-chain withdrawals available) can mean we'll have fewer retail hacks. I don't think the effect is that big though.

These tech-illiterate people that you're talking about are the kind of people that talks a lot so I think that it's going to be creating a chain that will pass to many people, I'm sure of that. People can't stop talking about investments after all and some of them want to get their peers and colleagues into investing on it because they do believe in that investment even if some of those investments are scams, they're bound to share it with other people. Another thing that can happen to make it more famous is if they the companies that got approved can also advertise that they're doing bitcoin ETFs now.

[Marvell1]

Can you define what's the definition of scam?

For me scam is something that use to fool you regardless it's direct or indirectly.

The example of direct scams are: ponzi scheme, sell a fake coin, cloud mining, promote a scam exchange etc.

While the example of indirect scams are: most of altcoins which created for a sake of profit, staking program, P2P lending, centralized exchange, banks, fiat and ETFs. Why ETFs is scam? you're not holding the real coin and centralized entity could going to bankrupt.

Your scam concept is interesting. If you call banks, fiat, ETFs... are scams, are you using them? Do you use a bank account, do you use fiat currency for your life?.. If you are using those things but denigrating them then you are a liar. Instead, we should use the word "risk" which would be appropriate for the examples you mentioned.

As a bitcoin investor, we don't need to talk bad about non-bitcoin things because that doesn't make bitcoin any better in people's eyes, we don't need to be so biased.

In addition, if you are not greedy and know how to control your greed, no one can scam you. So when you get scammed, don't blame anyone, blame yourself for your greed.