CoinChapter provides real-time coverage from the Bitcoin 2024 conference, featuring a high-profile lineup including former U.S. President Donald Trump, RFK Jr., Michael Saylor, Senator Cynthia Lummis, and Edward Snowden. Anticipate key announcements, with speculation swirling about Trump’s potential revelation of a U.S. Bitcoin reserve tomorrow.
Bitcoin 2024 Conference: Day One Highlights
The Bitcoin 2024 conference began on July 25 in Nashville, Tennessee, with a focus on industry developments. Over 35,000 attendees participated as speakers addressed the future of Bitcoin. Tennessee’s Commissioner Stuart McWhorter delivered the opening remarks, outlining the event’s schedule.
However, the start of the conference faced technical issues, particularly with the live broadcast. Viewers on YouTube and X experienced ongoing audio problems during the inaugural ceremony, which persisted for over 30 minutes despite the organizers’ attempts to resolve them.
2024 is year one of mainstream Bitcoin adoption — Michael Saylor
As day one drew to a close, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor joined the event livestream ahead of his keynote speech scheduled at 7:00 pm on July 26. The Bitcoin advocate said that 2024 will go down as “year one of mainstream institutional adoption of Bitcoin.”
Saylor’s business intelligence firm, Microstrategy, has owned over 200,000 Bitcoin since it announced Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset in August 2020.
Saylor intimated that the presence of two United States presidential candidates and other prominent senators could be a positive boon for Bitcoin:
“I think there’s a fair wind blowing for Bitcoin regardless. I really can’t see any administration in the future not embracing Bitcoin.”
Jimmy Song Criticizes Conference Focus on TradFi and ETFs
Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song took a firm stance during a panel discussion with Ben Askren, “Make Bitcoin in America Great Again.” The song criticized traditional finance institutions like BlackRock and the focus on banking, trading, and ETFs.
“What makes Bitcoin great is liberty, freedom, self-sovereignty. Those are the things that this country was founded on. Unfortunately, because of the money and power of the money printing press, what we’ve gotten is an administrative state that rules over us and thinks that they’re better than us,” Song said.
Panelist Luke Rudkowski supported this view. He stressed that Bitcoin should tackle issues created by government systems and champion self-reliance.
BlackRock Clients Are Mainly Interested in BTC, ETH
BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Michael Mitchnick, discussed their move into cryptocurrencies. He spoke about spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs in 2024 with Bloomberg’s James Seyffart. “I would say that in our client phase today, their interest overwhelmingly is in Bitcoin first.”
The Blackrock executive noted that institutional interest tended to simmer down after going beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.
He noted that most BlackRock clients view BTC and ETH as complementary rather than competitive assets, typically buying ETH ETFs to enhance their existing crypto portfolios rather than to replace Bitcoin holdings.
Interestingly, not all asset managers share BlackRock’s outlook. Franklin Templeton, which also issues BTC and ETH ETFs, remains optimistic about expanding its crypto ETF offerings, including a product for Solana (SOL).
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