Bitcoin Showed Up In DC — And Washington Took Notice

By Zack Cohen, Bitcoin Coverage Institute

Earlier than I dive into the abstract, I wish to thanks. On behalf of the complete group of the Bitcoin Coverage Institute, thanks everybody who has attended, supported, spoken, coordinated or participated in any manner. We’ve ready for months for our third Bitcoin Coverage Summit. What unfolded in Washington final week surpassed the whole lot we might have anticipated.

Greater than 1,000 individuals got here to us: builders, coverage makers, college students, desk employees, journalists, power consultants and proponents of human rights. And what they discovered was not a celebration dressed as a convention, however a critical two-day work session that mirrored how far the Bitcoin dialog got here and the place it goes.

Bitcoin has lengthy been misunderstood or sidelined in DC. It was simple for policymakers to reject it or to disregard it. However the high of 2025 despatched one other sign: Bitcoin doesn’t go away. It is not the horse. It’s central to rising discussions about nationwide technique, financial energy, digital rights and innovation.

A welcome that set the tone

We opened the week with a stuffed with welcome occasion, along with our pals at Pubkey. For outsiders, DC could look like a inflexible city-tight, formally, slowly shifting. However when you spend an actual time right here, you realize the reality: DC runs on relationships. And relationships are inbuilt these kinds of locations.

Greater than 450 attendees gathered in a room that buzzed with residing karaoke, robust cocktails (shoutout to have unchaining to provide you with the outdated -fashioned Bull Run and the miners’ mat), and a continuing dialog. It was loud. It was pleased. However above all it was critical power. Bitcoiners had arrived.

Who was within the room

This yr’s high has been introduced in:

• 1,000+ whole attendees
• 300+ Public Coverage Professionals
• 35 Congress workplaces, together with 12 members of the Congress
• 100+ federal authorities staff
• 50+ members of the press
• 49 universities
• 90,000+ Livestream -Voters

Contributors included nationwide safety consultants, monetary supervisors, suppose tank analysts, open-source builders, non-profit leaders and extra. The coalition of Bitcoin is being expanded and it turned out.

What we talked about

This system was structured on clear themes: nationwide safety, power, privateness, monetary inclusion and legislative technique. Keynotes, panels and lightning talks made room for each technical depth and broad imaginative and prescient.

Zack Shapiro outlined within the opening section BPI’s national strategic framework -A imaginative and prescient of American Bitcoin management based mostly on open-source values, resilience and future-oriented coverage. That was adopted by one Sharp panel about senate prioritiesTogether with the Bitcoin Act.

Alex Leishman held an information -rich dialog concerning the American Bitcoin -Benefit – Why place our establishments, capital markets and the rule of legislation the US place the US. Alex Gladstein introduced the human rights lens to life and reminded the room Bitcoin is still the most powerful freedom technology of the 21st century.

Patrick Witt, deputy director of the President’s Council on Digital Belongings, repeated the The strategic interest of the administration in BitcoinEmphasizing present progress:

“There would be the upcoming report concerning the actions of the Interagency. We’ve already taken just a few steps with the Spr. The query now’s, how can we observe up with an accumulation plan? There isn’t a scarcity of alternatives and actions. So after we go away right here, I’ll come again to it instantly.”

Two Democrats, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) joined Bitcoin Core’s tenth well-known developer Matt Corallo and BPI co-president Grant McCarty to debate the necessity to talk about Make the blockchain regulatory Curty act dichotomy.

Rep. Torres on,

“The worth of Bitcoin is safer than the worth of gold as a result of you possibly can at all times discover extra gold, however the supply of Bitcoin on this planet might be decided eternally.”

Rep. Gottheimer, who lately registered as a co-sponsor of the invoice, joined Rep. Torres on stage to elucidate his resolution to co-sponsor the account and to underline the significance of defending innovators and sustaining the integrity of the open-source developmental ecosystem.

In probably the most high-impact periods, BPIs Zack Shapiro sat down with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce To debate the ETF construction, certified custody and what the way forward for Bitcoin-Native Monetary Infrastructure might talk about. It was detailed, trustworthy and substantive – precisely what this second requires.

Workplace hours and the Q&A room

New this yr we launched structured workplace hours: one-on-one periods the place attendees might sit with our analysis fellows. These conversations dug in an unfiltered setting in a mining, privateness, laws and financial technique.

The Q&A room has added a depth layer. Cygnal CEO Brent Buchanan ran by way of one Recent poll of 800 possible interim voters. The findings have been clear: bitcoiners change into a political constituency. Ignore them at your personal danger.

Anna Chekhovich additionally led a basic Bitcoin 101 -session for coverage makers, during which the fundamental ideas of Bitcoin have been demolished in peculiar language, rooted in her world human rights work.

Bitcoin on the hill

BPIs Day on the hill Marked the most important coordinated effort so removed from Bitcoin proponents who have been straight concerned with legislators. Greater than 120 attendees participated in 118 confirmed conferences with congress workplaces:

• 48 Senate workplaces
• 70 home workplaces
• Greater than 10 conferences on the member degree
• Workplaces of 68 Democrats and 50 Republicans
• Illustration of 28 states, DC, and an American territory

This was not efficiency. It was strategic. For a lot of within the congress these have been the primary actual conversations that they had with critical, mission-driven bitcoin proponents.

Reflections

What stood out this yr was the tone. Bitcoiners got here wearing fits. Not as a dressing up, however as a sign. We bought busy severely. The joy within the room was not a hype – it was based mostly on focus, preparation and a shared feeling that this second mattered.

And DC responded. Coverage makers and employees weren’t solely open, they have been engaged. They requested good questions. They listened. The space between Bitcoin and Washington is shrinking rapidly.

Personally, probably the most putting consciousness was that Gen Z had appeared in pressure. It was not simply the variety of younger individuals within the room – it was their presence. They have been engaged, sharp, curious and genuinely enthusiastic to be a part of the dialog. I’ve been to extra conferences than I can rely, and this was the primary time it felt like my colleagues weren’t watching from the sidelines. They have been in it – asking questions, stimulating dialogue, fashioned the longer term. And the most effective of all, now we have solely simply began.

That is only the start

The Bitcoin Coverage Institute is uniquely positioned to prepare a high that solutions nobody however his mission. Bitcoin doesn’t ask for particular remedy. It’s not lobbying for hand -outs. It argues for the deserves why it can be crucial for American sovereignty, innovation and financial freedom.

That case turned rather more troublesome to disregard.

See you subsequent yr.

This can be a visitor publish from Zach Cohen. The expression of opinions are fully their very own and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.