Perhaps this is why the bitcoin spot ETFs are yet to send crypto prices to the moon

The long-awaited launch of bitcoin spot ETFs in the United States this year helped engender a wave of optimism that the value of the well-known cryptocurrency would quickly appreciate. The logic was simple: With an easy, low-cost avenue now available for regular investors to purchase bitcoin, the supply-demand curve would shift and the value of each bitcoin would rise.

But the response has been somewhat mixed. While the value of bitcoin has nearly doubled in the past year to around $43,000 today, it has largely traded sideways in recent weeks. Was the hype and ensuing response another example of the old Wall Street maxim, “Buy the rumor, sell the news”?

To be honest, we’re checking the flows into and out of spot bitcoin ETFs more frequently than we want to admit, but we still wanted to learn more. So, we asked TechCrunch readers if they intended to buy bitcoin via one of the new spot ETFs, whether they owned bitcoin elsewhere, and what impact they expected these new investing vehicles to have on its value and on crypto.

Several dozen replies from founders and operators later, we found some interesting trends. About a quarter of respondents to our little, unscientific survey reported that they don’t intend to buy bitcoin via an ETF, and already own bitcoin elsewhere. Where are folks holding their coins? Everywhere, it turns out: Self-custody, Coinbase, KuCoin, all sorts of locations. Rather impressively, Dara Khan, the head of marketing at Decent DAO’s bitcoin, said her wallet ended up at the “bottom of the ocean, lost it in a boating accident :(.”