Bitcoin (BTC) was price $110,000 finally yr’s massive Las Vegas convention however by the point Bitcoin 2026 kicked off this week, it had fallen to lower than $79,000.
Sadly, that was simply the beginning of the frustration.
The convention opened yesterday at The Venetian in Las Vegas with two senior US officers addressing a largely empty foremost stage.
Throughout the occasion, safety additionally escorted the spouse of imprisoned Samourai developer Keonne Rodriguez from one of many areas, and a member of Congress claimed to have began mining BTC in 2006, which isn’t potential.
The day’s most-hyped occasion, a foremost stage panel entitled “Code is Free Speech,” billed FBI Director Kash Patel and Appearing US Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche as audio system.
Nonetheless, neither bodily attended the occasion.
For a session pitched as a federal olive department to the crypto business, the practically empty occasion landed as little greater than an ungainly gesture.
Attendees additionally seen the inventory of the convention organizer’s public firm, Nakamoto, 99% beneath its worth throughout final yr’s convention.
And all this earlier than the occasion’s second day had even began.
Nakamoto (Nasdaq:NAKA). Might 2025-present. Supply: TradingView
Safety incident with a Samourai fan favourite
Broadly supported by the Bitcoin neighborhood, Lauren Rodriguez is the spouse of Keonne Rodriguez. Her husband is serving a five-year jail sentence for pleading responsible of conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash‑transmitting enterprise involving Samourai Pockets.
Based on her characterization of occasions, safety escorted her out of the convention “for holding #FreeSamourai signs,” tagging convention founder David Bailey.
Assist for Samourai is widespread within the Bitcoin and wider crypto communities. Certainly, the convention organizer had scheduled Rodriguez to seem that very same afternoon on a foremost stage panel entitled “The Wives & Mothers Carrying the Fight Against Injustice.”
Bailey’s employees later remedied the scenario, with Lauren thanking organizers for “resolving the issue with security.” Nonetheless, the preliminary media injury was quick, with 140,000 views on X of her preliminary criticism.
‘No longer prosecute Bitcoin developers’
Again on the foremost stage, inside minutes of a cagey and closely certified assertion by Appearing US Lawyer Normal Blanche, Pete Rizzo breathlessly broadcasted to his followers that the “US Attorney General just said they will no longer prosecute #bitcoin developers… Samourai devs about to be free.”
That was an unimaginable characterization. The truth is, Blanche had mentioned nothing about releasing Samourai builders, and merely promised a closely certified aspiration, vaguely hoping that his division wouldn’t typically intend to prosecute software program builders if “you are not helping and knowing the third party is using what you developed to commit crimes.”
Excluded from the celebratory claims on social media about Blanche’s non-existent promise to cease prosecuting Bitcoin builders, Blanche continued, “Clearly, information matter, as a result of for those who’re laundering cash or violating sanctions, the mere reality that you simply occur to be a coder doesn’t excuse you from felony legal responsibility.
“So there’s a distinction there, and that’s why the facts of a particular case are very important.”
Bitcoin 2026 speaker “mining bitcoin 20 years ago”
On the identical foremost stage, Iowa Republican Congressman Zach Nunn claimed to the viewers that he “started mining BTC 20 years ago.”
Sadly for Nunn, Satoshi Nakamoto revealed the Bitcoin whitepaper in October 2008. Twenty years in the past is 2006.
Lastly, the disappointing inventory worth of Nakamoto (NAKA), the BTC treasury inventory based by convention organizer Bailey, loomed closely over the occasion.
Throughout final yr’s convention, NAKA traded over $29 per share. It closed for buying and selling yesterday beneath $0.20.
A venue removed from capability, foremost stage audio system dialing it in, an ejected Samourai protester, and a congressman magically mining BTC years earlier than the community launched.
All of it match inside simply the primary day of Bitcoin 2026. Two extra days to go.
