By Zack Cohen, Bitcoin Coverage Institute
Earlier than diving into the recap, I need to say thanks. On behalf of your entire staff on the Bitcoin Coverage Institute, thanks to everybody who attended, supported, spoke, tuned in, or participated in any means. We spent months making ready for our third Bitcoin Coverage Summit. What unfolded in Washington final week exceeded something we may have anticipated.
Greater than 1,000 folks joined us: builders, policymakers, college students, company workers, journalists, vitality specialists, and human rights advocates. And what they discovered was not a celebration dressed up as a convention, however a critical two-day working session that mirrored how far the Bitcoin dialog has come – and the place it’s going.
Bitcoin has lengthy been misunderstood or sidelined in DC. It’s been straightforward for policymakers to dismiss or ignore it. However the 2025 Summit despatched a distinct sign: Bitcoin isn’t going away. It’s not on the perimeter. It’s on the middle of rising conversations about nationwide technique, financial power, digital rights, and innovation.
A Welcome That Set the Tone
We opened the week with a packed welcome social gathering, co-hosted with our buddies at PubKey. To outsiders, DC might appear to be a inflexible city — buttoned-up, formal, slow-moving. However in the event you spend actual time right here, you understand the reality: DC runs on relationships. And relationships are inbuilt locations like this.
Over 450 attendees gathered in a room buzzing with dwell karaoke, sturdy cocktails (shoutout to Unchained for devising the Previous Original Bull Run and the Miner’s Mule), and fixed dialog. It was loud. It was joyful. However most of all, it was critical vitality. Bitcoiners had arrived.
Who Was within the Room
This yr’s summit introduced in:
- 1,000+ complete attendees
- 300+ public coverage professionals
- 35 congressional workplaces, together with 12 members of Congress
- 100+ federal authorities staff
- 50+ members of the press
- 49 universities
- 90,000+ livestream viewers
Attendees included nationwide safety specialists, monetary regulators, assume tank analysts, open-source builders, nonprofit leaders, and extra. Bitcoin’s coalition is broadening, and it confirmed.
What We Talked About
This system was structured round clear themes: nationwide safety, vitality, privateness, monetary inclusion, and legislative technique. Keynotes, panels, and lightning talks made house for each technical depth and broad imaginative and prescient.
Within the opening section, Zack Shapiro outlined BPI’s nationwide technique framework — a imaginative and prescient of American Bitcoin management grounded in open-source values, resilience, and forward-looking coverage. That was adopted by a pointy panel on Senate priorities, together with the BITCOIN Act.
Alex Leishman gave a data-rich speak on the American Bitcoin benefit — why our establishments, capital markets, and rule of legislation place the US to steer. Alex Gladstein introduced the human rights lens to life, reminding the room that Bitcoin continues to be essentially the most highly effective freedom expertise of the twenty first century.
Patrick Witt, Deputy Director of the President’s Council on Digital Property, reiterated the administration’s strategic curiosity in Bitcoin, highlighting ongoing progress:
“There would be the forthcoming report on the interagency actions. We’ve already taken some steps with the SPR. The query now’s, how will we observe that up with an accumulation plan? There’s no scarcity of alternatives and work to be finished. So after we depart right here, I’ll get proper again to it.”
Two democrats, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) joined Bitcoin Core’s tenth recognized developer Matt Corallo and BPI Co-president Grant McCarty to debate the necessity for making the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act bipartisan.
At one level in the course of the panel, Rep. Torres remarked,
“The worth of Bitcoin is safer than the worth of gold as a result of you may at all times discover extra gold, however the provide of Bitcoin on the earth goes to stay mounted in perpetuity.”
Rep. Gottheimer, who just lately signed on as a co-sponsor of the invoice, joined Rep. Torres on stage to clarify his determination to co-sponsor the invoice and underscore the significance of defending innovators and preserving the integrity of the open-source growth ecosystem.
In probably the most high-impact classes, BPI’s Zack Shapiro sat down with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce to debate ETF construction, certified custody, and what the way forward for Bitcoin-native monetary infrastructure would possibly appear like. 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 classes the place attendees may sit down with our analysis fellows. These conversations dug into mining, privateness, regulation, and financial technique in an unfiltered setting.
The Q&A Room added one other layer of depth. Cygnal CEO Brent Buchanan walked by a latest ballot of 800 possible midterm voters. The findings had been clear: Bitcoiners have gotten a political constituency. Ignore them at your personal danger.
Anna Chekhovich additionally led a foundational Bitcoin 101 session for policymakers, breaking down the fundamentals of Bitcoin in plain language, rooted in her international human rights work.
Bitcoin on the Hill
BPI’s Day on the Hill marked the most important coordinated effort up to now of Bitcoin advocates participating straight with lawmakers. Over 120 attendees participated in 118 confirmed conferences with congressional workplaces:
- 48 Senate workplaces
- 70 Home workplaces
- Over 10 conferences on the member stage
- Places of work from 68 Democrats and 50 Republicans
- Illustration from 28 states, DC, and a U.S. territory
This wasn’t performative. It was strategic. For a lot of in Congress, these had been the primary actual conversations they’d had with critical, mission-driven Bitcoin advocates.
Reflections
What stood out this yr was the tone. Bitcoiners got here wearing fits. Not as a fancy dress, however as a sign. We got here to have interaction severely. The thrill within the room wasn’t hype — it was grounded in focus, preparation, and a shared sense that this second mattered.
And DC responded. Policymakers and workers weren’t simply open, they had been engaged. They requested good questions. They listened. The gap between Bitcoin and Washington is shrinking, quick.
Personally, essentially the most hanging realization was that Gen Z had proven up in drive. It wasn’t simply the variety of younger folks within the room—it was their presence. They had been engaged, sharp, curious, and genuinely excited 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 friends weren’t watching from the sidelines. They had been in it—asking questions, driving dialogue, shaping the long run. And better of all, we’re solely simply getting began.
This Is Solely the Starting
The Bitcoin Coverage Institute is uniquely positioned to host a summit that solutions to nobody however its mission. Bitcoin isn’t asking for particular remedy. It’s not lobbying for handouts. It’s making a case, on the deserves, for why it issues to American sovereignty, innovation, and financial freedom.
That case simply received so much tougher to disregard.
See you subsequent yr.
This can be a visitor submit by Zach Cohen. Opinions expressed are totally their very own and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.
