I understand the perspective of taking the tax penalty now to have bitcoin under my control, rather than putting it in an ETF.

The thing is, I hate taxes more than I love bitcoin and weird stuff happens over long enough time horizons. It's entirely possible that there will be opportunities to get out of these retirement funds at much lower tax rates sometime in the next several decades. In that event, I'll be able to get the best of both worlds.

I'm glad you got your financial house in order, to your satisfaction.