Lessons From Las Vegas - Bitcoin 2025

This week all eyes have been drawn towards the ground zero of gambling, Las Vegas Nevada, for Bitcoin Magazine’s annual conference, Bitcoin 2025. 

With Bitcoin recently breaking all-time highs (in a very weak US dollar at least), much excitement was in the air as onlookers waited with bated breath for announcements that might send the price skyrocketing even further.

Expectations were high!

Perhaps a little too high….

As is tradition in Bitcoin, the biggest conference of the year coincided with a small but noticeable correction of the price (somewhere in the region of 7.5% at time of writing).

Why this seems to happen every year is unknown, but it likely has something to do with greedy traders opening leveraged long positions ahead of the conference, hoping a big announcement might result in big green candles and a juicy pay day.

The conference is in Vegas, but people aren’t playing roulette…

As you might expect, market makers are more than happy to take advantage of such predictable behaviour and liquidate any over-leveraged degenerates.

The house always wins…

So this year’s conference didn’t deliver any huge green candles, and Bitcoin continues to remain indifferent to the price predictions of talking heads and speculators. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Bitcoin Las Vegas was a bust. Afterall, Bitcoin’s price will always be the least interesting thing about it.

So, let's look beyond the price charts to try and identify any key highlights from the event, explore how the industry is evolving, and uncover any major trends that might be emerging.

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Bitcoin is Becoming Increasingly Political

As expected, Bitcoin continues to attract more and more political attention. The elephant in the room has grown so large now that even government officials must address it.

The biggest political presence came from the US.

Senators Cynthia Lummis and Marsha Blackburn were pushing for Bitcoin-friendly bills, Tyler Williams from the US Treasury hinted at softening regulations, and Mayor Eric Adams announced that New York City plans to issue Bitcoin backed bonds.

But the star of the show was of course Vice President JD Vance, who became the first sitting VP to publicly endorse Bitcoin. He even went as far as opposing centralised financial control, and highlighted Bitcoin’s censorship resistance as a defence against tyrannical governments.

Has the penny started to drop?

From the other side of the Atlantic, the UK’s Reform party leader Nigel Farage (Donald Trump’s biggest fan girl) was also out courting Bitcoiners in a predictably “me too” fashion. In his ongoing quest for political relevance he proposed a Bitcoin Reserve at the Bank of England, a limp wristed reduction in capital gains taxes, and surprise surprise, will now start accepting Bitcoin (and shitcoin) donations for his political party.

I guess he never got the memo about ending central banking….

If you want to know what Farage’s next move might be, it will be the same thing Trump does, just 6 months later.

We also saw an appearance from the Mayor of Panama City, Mayer Mizrachi who appeared on stage alongside Max Keiser, Stacey Herbert and Mike Peterson in a talk titled “Is Panama Next?”.

The panel discussed the rise in Bitcoin adoption in Central America, and Mizrachi revealed Panama City’s plans for a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve! They also highlighted the city’s recent legislation allowing residents to pay taxes and municipal fees with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

(There’s a reason our Plan B service in Panama is so popular!)

It was inevitable that politicians and nation states would start submitting to Bitcoin’s dominance, but it seems they still have a lot to learn.

For all the positive mentions of Bitcoin, it was painful to hear them still frequently reference ‘crypto’, support central banks, and push the idea that Bitcoin is an investable asset rather than just sound money. 

Is this simply a lack of understanding? Or is it a subtle form of resistance to the total separation of money and state and the erosion of their power and influence?

Whatever the reason, politicians shouldn’t be trusted, and it’s probably best we keep our wits about us. Besides, we weren’t asking for permission in the first place. They can either come along for the ride or get left behind. Their co-operation is welcome but not required.

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Stablecoin 2025

Along with all the politics came frequent mentions of stablecoins. The sentiment online seems to be that this year’s conference should have been called ‘Stablecoin 2025’. This synthetic form of fiat was the talk of the Venetian, promoted heavily by suits and influencers alike.

In JD Vance’s keynote he hyped up the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin bill he claims will “multiply” the dollar’s might, and Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bill Hagerty were busy pushing stablecoin legislation as a bridge to mainstream ‘crypto adoption’.

In total, stablecoins were mentioned on more than 30 different panels at this year’s conference. Check out this video from Lysander on our X account to get a sense of just how prevalent this narrative was:

Stablecoins do have their use cases, especially in developing countries where people struggle to access the traditional banking system.

But let’s not get things confused. Stablecoins are not Bitcoin, they’re just synthetic fiat, digital IOUs pegged to dying currencies that are anything but stable. They offer no censorship resistance, are subject to rampant inflation, and can be unilaterally controlled and monitored by private corporations and governments.

They may be marketed as ‘stablecoins’, but that’s only because the term ‘Central Bank Digital Currency’ (CBDC) has become politically unpopular. It’s a clever re-brand, but make no mistake, stablecoins are nothing more than a form of life support for fiat currencies that are already well past their expiration date.

Understand that when you use these CBDCs that absolutely every aspect of your financial life can be controlled. Your purchases monitored, your spending habits recorded, and at any moment your money could be frozen or censored.

Stablecoins are a dangerous glimpse into a potential dystopian future where every financial decision you make is permissioned. Don’t take the bait. There is only one form of money that gives you complete economic freedom and frees you from the coercive control of the state and central banks.

That money is Bitcoin. Don’t accept cheap imitations.

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Everybody Wants Bitcoin

The politicians weren’t alone in showing a growing interest in Bitcoin at this year’s conference. Corporate interests, nation states, and even football teams are now getting in on the action and announcing their plans to buy or hold Bitcoin.

Better late than never…

Below are some headlines that show demand for Bitcoin is starting to accelerate in circles where people have VERY deep pockets:

Trump Media and Technology Group

Trump Media and Technology Group announced a $2.5 billion Bitcoin treasury strategy, with $1.5 billion from common stock and $1 billion from convertible notes, with plans to hold Bitcoin as a core treasury asset.

Pakistan Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

Bilal Bin Saqib, CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council announced that Pakistan will be pursuing a government-led Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the country.

Presumably part funded by money sent to them via the UK’s development aid programme…

KindlyMD (via Nakamoto Holdings)

KindlyMD, traditionally a healthcare business, has now pivoted to focussing on acquiring Bitcoin-native companies to increase their ‘Bitcoin-per-share’ after a sizeable $710 million merger with Nakamoto Holdings.

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) Football Club

Even football teams are getting in on the action.

Pär Helgosson, head of PSG Labs announced at the conference that the famous club began allocating Bitcoin to its treasury as early as last year, making them the first top-flight sports club to adopt Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. 

Rumours have it that their ambition is to amass so much Bitcoin they can demand that the US stop calling it soccer. 

The trend here then is obvious, and we are fast approaching the point where reporting on who is or who might be about to buy Bitcoin will become pointless, because it will be everybody.

It is however interesting to see who the first movers are!

Bitcoin 2025 - Finding Signal Through the Noise

There was a lot of noise at Bitcoin 2025. Politicians were busy defending fiat and pushing stablecoins, and there was a continued presence of un-flushable shitcoin peddlers sponsoring the event and trying to lure people into their scams.

Thankfully, for those able to filter out the noise, there was some reassuringly strong signal at Bitcoin 2025 as well.

One thing that was particularly encouraging to see was an initiative from Rockstar Dev to get people spending and using Bitcoin as money at the event, with the goal of breaking a world record – the most Bitcoin transactions made in one day!

The more people use Bitcoin, the closer we get to leaving the fiat system behind entirely. This kind of grass roots promotion of Bitcoin is great to see.

And despite the very pro-political atmosphere at Bitcoin 2025, it was refreshing to see the Samourai Developers get mentions on the main stage and during the commentary to highlight the savage injustice they face from at the hands of the Department of Justice. Their crime? Nothing more than building open-source and non-custodial Bitcoin privacy tools.

Popular Bitcoin influencers have been deafening in their silence on this topic, so it’s refreshing to see there is still strong support within the community.

You can support their legal defence fund here: https://freesamourai.com/

And of course, how could we not mention the biggest highlight of the conference? Ross Ulbricht, now a free man, was able to take to the main stage and share his quite unbelievable story.

It still feels surreal to finally see him free, hopefully lightning can strike twice, and we will one day see the Samourai Developers reclaim their freedom too.

Finally, I also have it on good authority from our Chief Growth Officer Michael, that the biggest highlight of the conference was getting the opportunity to spend time with other Bitcoiners.

He will tell you that his highlight was most definitely getting the opportunity to meet some of our wonderful clients and partners.

As always, the most interesting people at the conference aren’t the ones on stage stacking thousands of Bitcoin, but the humble plebs pursuing truth and sovereignty to protect their families.

To those who we met there, thank you for being our highlight of Bitcoin 2025.

Stay Focussed – The Bitcoin Way

The signal to noise ratio at Bitcoin 2025 might have been a little lower than we would have hoped, but this is only a sign of Bitcoin’s undeniable progress.

As Bitcoin becomes more widely adopted and corporate and political interests move in, we have to accept that the popular narratives around it will continue to shift away from Bitcoin’s core ethos of sovereignty and freedom.

Nevertheless, at The Bitcoin Way, we remain steadfast in our commitment to teaching people the true nature of Bitcoin and how to use it properly to become fully self-sovereign.

If you’re looking for an effective way to cut through the noise and truly master the skills required to use Bitcoin to its full potential, then our experts are always on hand to get you up to speed fast.

Simply book a call with one of our experts and within weeks we will make sure you are more competent than most of the speakers on stage at Bitcoin 2025.