LAS VEGAS—Though the nightmare lines the promoters said would materialize here as thousands would try to get into the Bitcoin 2025 Conference never happened, they just barely managed to fill the place on Day 2, even with a speech by Vice President Vance as the lure.
Unlike the previous day, the auditorium did fill, but it seems, largely responsible for that were signs on the Las Vegas strip promising free Bitcoin Conference tickets with purchase of other entertainment. As with the cryptocurrency itself, people ended up being suckered if they paid the original price to get in.
Yet, much of the assembled crowd that was there on Day 2 was genuinely thrilled to be there. Vice President J.D. Vance is by far the most powerful speaker who has ever appeared at the annual conference.
Though both the now-President Donald Trump and his then-future Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville last year, neither held elected office at the time.
Now, attendees were told to arrive as early as 5:00 in the morning to move through Secret Service security, though People’s World arrived at 7:30 and encountered no lines. Agents milled around, and finally, the Vice President arrived on stage, waving to the cheering crowd. People were out of their seats, straining to take photos.
When Vance finally spoke, he was clearly in his element. He is, after all, the product of the Silicon Valley financial technology industry, mentored by Peter Thiel, who himself is invested in Bitcoin.
Vance’s vocabulary, tone, and posture framed his name-dropping of the Winkelvoss Twins, Cameron and Tyler, whom he credited with introducing him to Bitcoin. He shouted out Coinbase, which just went public on Wall Street.
Vance revealed to the crowd that he himself owns a “fair amount of Bitcoin.” He called it a hedge not just against the dollar—a shocking thing for the Vice President of the United States to say—but also against a private sector that he said threatens to de-bank individuals for their MAGA or Second Amendment beliefs.
He referenced the so-called Trucker Movement of 2022, which took place in Canada, saying that once the organizers of that were de-banked, the truckers were forced to go home. He called the audience assembled “digital pioneers” who will be forging the future.
His remarks were brief, only 15 minutes, but the fact that he was willing to travel more than 2,000 miles to address a trade conference whose spiritual leader was, until this year, serving a 240-year prison sentence, underscored the political power of the money assembled at the conference.
And it is not just Vance who appeared at the conference to express gratitude to the Bitcoin community. A later panel titled “Bitcoin as a Public Asset” featured not one, but two Trump children. Eric and Don Jr. appeared with two of their employees—the Trump family is now in the Bitcoin mining business. In fact, they had just announced earlier that month that their company, called American Bitcoin, would be going public.
While the two Trump sons have plenty to dredge up in terms of personal grievance, identifying themselves as members of the de-banked community that Vance alluded to in his earlier remarks, the conversation was bereft of anything regarding public assets, much less how Bitcoin might be included.
They played to the crowd even more than Vance did, drawing far more excitement, applause, and engagement. They skillfully weaved their own grievances in with the audience —“This happened to you too, right?”—as if everyone assembled were also extremely wealthy and powerful individuals who had survived legal siege by the Biden administration.
The Trumps were more than grateful to their audience. They were humble. “We would have never found crypto if it weren’t [that the] same scumbags coming after us are coming after you,” says Eric Trump. “I’m not sure we would have won in the same way if not for this incredible community by our side the entire time.”
From the Vice President to the Trump children, it seems like much of the Trump Administration literally has a vested interest in Bitcoin. The line between state and personal interest has totally evaporated. It’s hard to see who is leading whom in this dance.
The day wraps with a modest panel at one of the side stages, where the chairs are far less comfortable and the light less forgiving. It’s titled “Are Bitcoiners Becoming Sycophants of the State?” and staffed by old-school libertarian types.
Their answer to the question was “yes,” but they seem stumped by their own inability to do anything about it. According to their own libertarian principles, they are unable to force change in the Bitcoin space.
One panelist, a former Senate candidate from New Hampshire, said that “we should ignore [elected officials] and refuse to meet with them.” He seemed upset that people like J.D. Vance, Eric, and Donald Trump Jr. were invited to speak at the conference.
On his website, however, he has posted a photo of himself posing with Donald Trump from last year’s Bitcoin conference.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
