Just saw Bitcoin 2026 wrapped up in Vegas last week and apparently it was huge. Todd Blanche and Kash Patel actually showed up to do a fireside chat on the policy side of things - kind of wild that the acting AG and FBI director are openly engaging with the Bitcoin community like this.

The whole Code & Country track seemed to be the main draw. You had Senator Cynthia Lummis, the SEC chair Paul Atkins, CFTC chair Mike Selig all there talking directly with builders about regulation and civil liberties. No middlemen, just devs and policymakers hashing it out.

Patel's session was called 'Code is Free Speech: Ending the War on Bitcoin' which honestly sounds like the conversation the space has been waiting for. The fact that it's framed around open-source rights and developer protection is interesting timing.

Conference also had the usual heavyweight lineup - Michael Saylor, BlackRock's digital assets guy, Caitlin Long from Custodia Bank, Arthur Hayes. Even the Czech National Bank governor showed up.

The vibe seems to be that Bitcoin's finally getting taken seriously at the government level. Whether that actually translates to better policy remains to be seen, but at least the dialogue is happening. Pretty different from even a couple years ago.