The Pomp Podcast
The Biggest Shift in Bitcoin History Is Happening Now | Dan Tapiero & Robbie Mitchnick
27 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
the narrative about bitcoin is digital gold is very real is very important it's not going away it doesn't matter that gold is up and silver is up in the last 18 months you know exponentially and bitcoin is down over the long term of course bitcoin has dramatically outperformed gold i suspect the dollar keeps going down i think this is going to be very bullish for us over the medium term gold and bitcoin
Chapter 2: Why was the Bitcoin ETF launch considered so successful?
Robbie, greatest product launch in the history of Wall Street, I think the Bitcoin ETF iBit is. Why was it so successful?
Well, it had a lot of things converging at the right time for it, right? The pent up demand that had existed for many years to be able to access Bitcoin in a convenient turnkey, low cost exposure vehicle was substantial.
Chapter 3: What is the future of Bitcoin beyond the ETF?
That was true for retail. It was especially true for financial advisors and for institutions. And so you had this moment where all of a sudden access got unlocked to the entire of mainstream finance.
Chapter 4: How are traditional finance and crypto converging?
And it coincided with the fact that Bitcoin is an asset. You know, obviously we're in a less positive moment right now, but is a asset that has massive resonance with all kinds of people and all kinds of investors all over the world. And you put those two together and it was somewhat unprecedented in terms of the the strength of the adoption.
And even today, obviously, Bitcoin is down by almost 50% from the peak.
Chapter 5: How do institutions view Bitcoin in their asset allocations?
But if you measure funds post-launch, and we're now two years and a month after iBit launched, it's still by far the largest ETF in history, even after this pullback, after two years.
That's pretty incredible. Dan, you were on the other side. You weren't launching the product, but you and all your friends were thinking about what is this going to mean for the industry?
Chapter 6: What impact do macroeconomic factors have on Bitcoin's value?
Have you seen a change in the conversations with people who you would consider peers after the launch?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it started in May of 23, or I think it was June when Larry changed his mind about Bitcoin. I think that was sort of the beginning of this bull phase. He really kicked it off.
Chapter 7: What partnerships are crucial for building in the digital asset space?
And then the launch in January 24 of all of the ETFs, frankly, was definitely a legitimizer. I think the big change now is that Bitcoin, and I think to some degree ETH as well, maybe not quite Solana, maybe Solana too, but are really considered established assets that now must be considered within an asset allocation model.
Chapter 8: How does liquidity affect the crypto market dynamics?
And I think when I did this event, I don't know, two years ago, or I did it last year, two years ago, it was still a question mark whether you know, it belonged in the portfolio. And I think now, of course, with some of these companies, the DATs that are owning Bitcoin, plus some of the IPOs, plus the successful ETFs, I think there's really no doubt now that Bitcoin is an institutional asset.
And so we wanted the institutions to come. They're here and now the price has cut in half in four months. You know. Welcome. Those two are not necessarily the same. No, they're not the same, but I will say, you know, I've been broadly in the crypto space since 2012. And, you know,
The sophisticated investor and the world that I used to be in, the hedge fund world, is very aggressive, very smart, very intelligent. And once an asset has the liquidity of an institutional type asset, they are very happy to short as well. And they're aggressive shorters.
So when you see hedge fund performance sometimes do very well, as they did in January and let's say in Q4, you know, they're on both sides of the market. So it's not like be careful what you wish for. I think we broadly as a space have won. Right.
But along with winning comes some other things that maybe the crypto native guys aren't so used to, which is a very aggressive investor base who will, you know, who are on both sides.
Robbie, talk about you guys have an advantage, right? You're kind of first to market at scale. Bitcoin, obviously, you guys could build an amazing business by going in, you know, quadrupling assets over the next couple of years. You also are pushing horizontally, though, and offering other funds and thinking about tokenization and all these other things.
So how do you think about press your advantage on the Bitcoin ETF, but also build, you know, kind of diversified portfolio or diversified business?
Yeah.
Well, we have to do both, but I think unquestionably Bitcoin and iBit has been, is, will continue to be a massive central focus, right? It's not, you know, just launch a fund and see it's gone really well. Okay, great, let's do next thing. There's an ongoing investment in it, in education, in client engagement around it, in marketing support, and all of that continues to be a focus.
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