And, naturally, it raised questions about maturity levels and whatnot. What will the big Wall Street firms that are making their boldest moves yet into crypto – including bitcoin ETF applications from the likes of giant asset manager BlackRock – think of all this?
The thing is, though, there’s precedent for show-stopping battles like this in traditional finance. When author Michael Lewis’ “Flash Boys” came out in 2014, he appeared on CNBC from the New York Stock Exchange floor with the book’s hero, Brad Katsuyama. Lewis and Katsuyama faced off “against William O’Brien, the president of the BATS Global Markets exchange, who was clearly enraged at the book’s argument that the stock market is rigged in favor of high-speed traders,” according to a New York Times“Insults flew,” the Times reported. “The guests raised their voices. Floor brokers at the New York Stock Exchange, glued to their television sets, whooped and hollered at the spoken jabs.