Hey all,

I’m Rizzo, the Bitcoin Historian. For more than a decade, I’ve been documenting Bitcoin’s evolution – the people, ideas, companies, and moments that defined it.

I spend every day tracking what’s shaping Bitcoin.

This week: ⚡ The man who ran the BTC market in 2010 is still confused about crypto ⚡ Russia beats the US to Bitcoin regulation ⚡ Crypto media is going institutional ⚡

I've spent my career trying to keep my finger on the pulse of this industry — not just the big picture, but the nuance too. Some weeks that means untangling something like the BIP 110 fight, other weeks it means sitting down with someone like Jed McCaleb and letting them zoom all the way out.

CoinDesk captured the early innovators — the first wave of builders who needed a professional platform to be taken seriously at all. Bitcoin Magazine captured something different: the culture, the zeitgeist, the counter-culture energy that made bitcoin feel like a movement instead of an asset class.

Both of those eras were real, and I'm proud of the work I did in each of them.

But the industry doesn't hold still. The people who show up to it change. Their reasons for showing up change. I think anyone paying close attention can see that the counter-culture phase is over. The road ahead runs either through Wall Street or around it — and I'm betting it runs through. That's the entire reason I founded Bitcoin Treasuries: not another crypto-native outlet, but the first real institutional media platform for this asset class. Real insights built to the standard of a BlackRock or a Morgan Stanley.

We've spent the last year quietly building toward that, and the Bitcoin Treasuries Conference, this September 28 in New York City, is our clearest expression so far.

This year is about the fuller story of institutional digital asset adoption: not one company's playbook, but the whole spectrum of CFOs, allocators, and operators figuring out what a bitcoin strategy actually looks like inside a real balance sheet. Adam Back and Grant Cardone are headlining, alongside heavy hitters like Eric Weiss, Matt Cole, and Jordi Visser — and honestly, this year's speaker list and activations are just the beginning. I can't wait to share the rest as it comes together.

Here's the bet underneath all of it: I think this becomes the new Consensus. The new Bitcoin Conference. Maybe that's an oversized claim for a room of 350 people in September — but that's the future I'm building toward.

Last September, we saw a Michael Saylor keynote, and a few months later Strive closed a $1.4 billion acquisition of Semler Scientific in the same room. I don't think that was luck. I think it was the beginning of something much bigger.

See you in New York.

🎙 FEATURE INTERVIEW

Jed McCaleb held the entire Bitcoin market on his own laptop. Literally — before Mt. Gox became crypto's favorite disaster shorthand, Jed McCaleb built it, ran it, and had every trade in the dataset. Then he left, founded Ripple, founded Stellar, and walked away from crypto entirely to build actual human habitats in orbit.

I got him on the podcast this week, and he told me flat-out: he doesn't know who Saylor is, doesn't follow the DC policy fights, and doesn't really understand what the industry became after he left it. No hedging — just a guy with nothing left to prove.

Check out the full conversation to get McCaleb’s honest take on how he thinks about where crypto went, and how crypto can help humans transact among the stars.

US HOUSE WILL HOLD A CLARITY ACT HEARING THIS WEEK IN NEW YORK

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The House Financial Services Digital Assets Subcommittee holds a field hearing in New York this Friday, July 17, titled "Building the Future of Finance: How the CLARITY Act Unlocks Innovation." Lawmakers are gathering input from exchanges, investors, and institutions on how the authority of the CFTC and SEC should be divided.

CoinDesk reports a new merged draft, combining Senate Banking and Agriculture Committee text, could land as soon as this week, running more than 70 pages longer than the prior version. Ethics restrictions on senior officials' crypto ties remain unresolved, and backers need roughly seven Senate Democrats to cross over for the 60 votes required. A floor vote is targeted for the week of July 20.

→ Follow @pete_rizzo_ and turn on notifications so you don't miss any updates.

CBDC BAN BECAME LAW WITHOUT TRUMP’S SIGNATURE

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The digital dollar ban became law last week after Trump neither signed nor vetoed it within the constitutional 10-day window. It was included in the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, passed 358-32 in the House and 85-5 in the Senate, both veto-proof margins.

Trump said on Truth Social that he would withhold his signature to protest the Senate's failure to pass the unrelated SAVE Act. The Federal Reserve is currently prohibited from issuing a CBDC, or anything substantially similar, until 2030. The ban applies only to a government-issued digital dollar; it does not restrict Bitcoin or private stablecoins.

RUSSIA ADVANCES BILL TO LEGALIZE BITCOIN FOR FOREIGN TRADE

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Russia's State Duma Financial Market Committee approved a revised draft of its crypto bill last week, clearing it for a second reading. The bill classifies Bitcoin and other crypto as property, legal for cross-border trade and settlement, while keeping the existing ban on domestic crypto payments.

The new draft drops a requirement to declare individual wallet addresses (holders now only report balances and transaction volume) and adds a rule freezing large overseas transfers for up to two days. It still needs to pass second and third Duma readings, the Federation Council, and Putin's signature; an earlier July 1 implementation target has already slipped.

Today's section is brought to you by Trezor.

Every time you leave Bitcoin on an exchange, you're asking someone else's permission to use it: a login that won't cooperate, a withdrawal limit, a "temporary hold" that never explains itself. When you think about it, exchanges are just banks with better branding.

Bitcoin was built so nobody has to say yes before you move your own money. A Trezor makes it happen for you. Your keys live on the device in your hand, not on someone else's server, and nothing you sign yourself can be frozen, paused, or reviewed.

Most people just forgot they never needed to ask.