Has Bitcoin been captured by politics and institutions?

Sixteen years after its launch, Bitcoin is no longer just a cypherpunk experiment or an anti-establishment asset. In 2025, it’s increasingly rubbing shoulders with politicians, institutions, and Wall Street titans.

That shift was on full display at the recent Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, where Cointelegraph was on the ground to capture the mood.

In this week’s episode of Byte-Sized Insight, Cointelegraph’s Gareth Jenkinson explores whether politics and institutions have captured Bitcoin BTCUSD or whether it has simply become too important to ignore.

Bitcoin 2025 shift

Once a Bitcoin-only gathering for hardcore believers, the conference now features prominent political figures such as US Vice President JD Vance, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and a host of institutional investors. Their presence signals a seismic shift: Bitcoin is now firmly in the sights of the political and financial elite.

One of the most striking trends to emerge is the rise of Bitcoin treasury companies. Inspired by MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, firms like Metaplanet, Twenty One and Nakamoto are now putting Bitcoin on their balance sheets and offering public investors a proxy to BTC exposure through equity markets.

Gareth sat down with Dylan LeClair, director of Bitcoin strategy at Metaplanet, which recently became Japan’s most-traded stock by volume and value. Said LeClair:

Bitcoin’s institutional adoption

Also featured in the episode is Jack Mallers, the outspoken CEO of Strike and founder of Twenty One, a new Bitcoin treasury company backed by Tether, Softbank, and Cantor Fitzgerald. 

Mallers welcomed the growing political and institutional attention but emphasized that Bitcoin’s use cases are evolving naturally, from payments to long-term value storage.

To gain historical perspective, Gareth also spoke with Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream and creator of Hashcash, the proof-of-work system referenced in the Bitcoin white paper. 

Back offered a long view on how Bitcoin’s technical and social evolution reflects its increasing global relevance. He offered the idea that institutional adoption is just another use case. 

Listen to the full episode of Byte-Sized Insight for the complete interview on Cointelegraph’s Podcasts page, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And don’t forget to check out Cointelegraph’s full lineup of other shows! 

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