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This analysis is flawed. People are paying a premium in the futures market to have exposure to BTC without having to acquire and hold physical bitcoins. There is a similar trend in other regulated exchange products like GBTC https://ycharts.com/companies/GBTC/discount_or_premium_to_na...

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Exactly. The author says:

> You can’t lose your Bitcoins – you just keep them on chain, and no exchange going bust will affect your position.

You absolutely can lose your Bitcoins if your private keys are compromised. Large institutions can and do get hacked or have money embezzled all the time.

Or, say, you mined a half dozen coins or so 10 years and 5 computers ago.

> physical bitcoins

"Physical" has a specific meaning in financial jargon.

For example, when you trade EUR/USD, you can take "physical delivery" of the position. That doesn't mean that you will get a stack of banknotes, only that the trade will be settled in a different way.

let's give him the benefit of the doubt and take it as "the bits of your private keys in a hardware wallet" :)

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