Eric Balchunas chama fundos negociados em bolsa de ’tokens com benefícios’

ETFs ganham nova roupagem na era digital.

ANÁLISE DO MERCADO

O analista sênior da Bloomberg redefine produtos financeiros tradicionais com linguagem cripto. Balchunas argumenta que ETFs oferecem liquidez instantânea e transparência regulatoria - vantagens que tokens descentralizados ainda buscam alcançar.

BENEFÍCIOS EM DESTAQUE

Custos operacionais reduzidos e estrutura fiscal eficiente tornam ETFs atraentes para investidores institucionais. A ironia? Produtos financeiros do século XX sendo repaginados como inovação disruptiva.

O mercado responde com crescimento recorde: ETFs globais atingem US$ 15 trilhões em assets under management enquanto tentam emular a eficiência tecnológica das criptomoedas.

PARADOXO REGULATÓRIO

Reguladores abraçam ETFs enquanto combatem criptoativos - mesmo quando ambos convergem tecnologicamente. A FSA acelera aprovações de ETFs temáticos como estratégia para conter migração de capitais para DeFi.

O fechamento: talvez a verdadeira disrupção esteja em produtos tradicionais aprendendo a falar a língua das novas gerações de investidores. E quem sai ganhando é sempre o mercado financeiro - surpreendendo ninguém.

Crypto community discusses ‘ETF better than tokens’ theory

Meidinger did not categorically deny the “token with benefit” sentiment, but he reminded Balchunas that Cardano had several similar token projects. 

“Tokens with benefits… nice, we have those in Cardano as well,” he said, listing NMKR, Strike Cardano, Snek, Surf, Hoskytoken, FluidTokens, USDM, and Danogo Finance. “Combine that with a possible altseason and who knows,” he added, which prompted a response from the ETF analyst.

Other community members who took issue with the Bloomberg analyst’s words argued that while ETFs mimic some aspects of tokens, they differ in philosophy.

“A token is permissionless code; an ETF is custodial compliance. One is math as law, the other is law wrapped around math. The question is simple: do you want assets that obey physics, or assets that obey regulators?” a commenter asked.

Balchunas countered by saying decentralization and permissionless systems are “huge” for bitcoin, but not as much for other blockchains.

Permissionless and decentralization is HUGE for bitcoin (it has to be something the govt cant f with) but is overrated for other blockchains imo. Normal ppl value security and protection and convenience way more than that stuff. You'll see.

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) September 24, 2025

The naysayer pressed further, asking the analyst to explain why “every financial crisis of the last 50 years” happened in the watch of regulated custodians. 

“ETFs wrap risk in law, but law bends under political pressure. Bitcoin’s code does not. Which foundation survives a sovereign debt collapse: assets backed by signatures of politicians, or assets backed by thermodynamics?” they asked, which Balchunas did not reply to.

Another user countered that ETFs could never fully match token flexibility, arguing that ETFs are not tradeable 24 hours a day, and they can’t run in a P2P exchange in a “non-censurable way.”

Balchunas disagreed, saying: “You can trade ETFs around the clock in many cases, and that. Many exchanges are moving to longer hours, too. But 99% of normal investors don’t need to trade that addictively.”

ETFs week of red continues, outflows for the second consecutive day

Even though Balchunas is positive about the funds’ market outlook for the coming months, this week has been a bloodbath for spot crypto ETFs. Both bitcoin and ether ETFs extended their losing streaks on Tuesday, off a forgetful start to a week that saw the funds shed over $400 million in assets. 

According to Farside Investors data, Bitcoin ETFs saw $103.61 million in outflows, the second straight day of withdrawals. Fidelity’s FBTC led the downturn, losing $75.56 million, followed by Ark 21Shares’ ARKB with $27.85 million and Bitwise’s BITB with $12.76 million. 

Small inflows came into Invesco’s BTCO ($10.02 million) and BlackRock’s IBIT ($2.54 million), but they did little to offset the wider redemptions. Net assets fell to $147.17 billion, with $3.16 billion traded during the day.

Ether ETFs posted more collective outflows of $140.75 million, led by Fidelity’s FETH $63.40 million, and Grayscale’s Ether Mini Trust $36.37 million exit. 

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