Earlier this week, members of the Onramp team attended the 2025 Bitcoin Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Bitcoin Policy Institute.

This was a different kind of bitcoin conference—one where the dominant themes weren’t price, speculation, or hype, but policy, statecraft, and long-term strategic planning. The tone was serious. The participants were credible. And the conversation reflected a growing recognition: bitcoin is no longer fringe.

Here are the key takeaways:

➤ Concept to Implementation: Strategic Bitcoin Reserves

The “SBR” concept—initially floated as a thought experiment over a year ago—is now a formal legislative proposal, supported by an Executive Order from the President of the United States.

At the summit, BPI unveiled its State-Level Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Toolkit, which Onramp is proud to have helped craft. The document lays out the legal, operational, and custodial framework for states to acquire and manage bitcoin as a treasury asset.

Multi-institution custody (MIC) is central to the proposal, offering a fault-tolerant architecture with no single point of failure, designed for cold storage, geographic redundancy, and long-term resilience.

This isn’t just theoretical—several states are actively reviewing the blueprint.

➤ Legislative Progress Is Accelerating

Senators Cynthia Lummis and Marsha Blackburn provided updates on multiple bills moving through Congress. The GENIUS Act, passed by the Senate, marks the first piece of legislation to emerge from the Banking Committee in nearly a decade. A broader market structure bill is advancing as well—with bipartisan support and significantly more rigor than 2024’s FIT21 bill.

➤ Bitcoin as a Fiscal Hedge

Economists Josh Hendrickson and Will Luther presented a sobering overview of the U.S. fiscal outlook. Debt-to-GDP has returned to post-WWII levels—without the wartime justification—and the structural drivers of spending are largely untouchable. In this context, bitcoin offers an alternative. Strategic bitcoin reserves won’t fix the problem alone, but they can help restore fiscal discipline and capacity over time without relying on monetary debasement or financial repression.

➤ The American Bitcoin Advantage

River CEO Alex Leishman presented compelling data on bitcoin ownership in the U.S., including:

• 40% of all bitcoin holdings reside in America
• 95% of public company BTC holdings belong to U.S. firms
• 80% of ETF assets are held domestically
• Over half of the top 25 hedge funds and RIAs have exposure via spot ETFs

Bitcoin is becoming a widely held, institutionally accessible monetary asset—with most of its infrastructure anchored in the United States. There is growing recognition that America has a significant advantage with respect to bitcoin, and we cannot afford to squander our lead relative to global players.

➤ U.S. Bitcoin Ownership Is Widespread and Values-Driven

In a panel led by Troy Cross, research showed 18.6% of Americans own bitcoin, with ownership cutting across demographics. Holders tend to value economic freedom, transparency, and utility—driven more by trust in bitcoin than political affiliation. Adoption increasingly reflects personal financial conviction, not ideology.

➤ Bitcoin Goes Global: Sovereign Exposure Accelerates

Sarah Kreps (Director, Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute) presented new data showing 32 countries with active or exploratory sovereign bitcoin exposure—including reserves, mining, pensions, and tax strategies. The message: bitcoin is fast becoming a strategic asset in global economic planning.

➤ National Security and Energy Policy

Patrick Witt, Deputy Director of the White House Council on Digital Assets, emphasized the role of bitcoin within a broader industrial and strategic policy framework: digital infrastructure, resilient compute, and global capital market access. As the U.S. reevaluates its competitive positioning, bitcoin is now part of the national security and industrial base discourse.

Custody Standards Are Evolving

One of the most important moments of the summit came during a fireside chat between BPI’s Zack Shapiro and SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce.

Shapiro laid out the logic behind bitcoin-native custody frameworks like multi-institution custody—highlighting their inherent advantages over legacy models that rely on a single “qualified custodian.” Commissioner Peirce’s response was measured but encouraging: she acknowledged that custody models grounded in the protocol’s design may in fact offer stronger guarantees than incumbent structures.

This is a critical development. As regulatory thinking matures, there’s growing recognition that secure bitcoin custody doesn’t need to conform to legacy molds—it can (and should) align with the properties of the asset itself.

Broader Reflections

• Bitcoin is being discussed not as a speculative instrument, but as a monetary tool, strategic reserve asset, and infrastructure layer.
• MIC is emerging as the most robust standard for bitcoin custody and being formalized in public policy frameworks.
• U.S. fiscal policymakers are acknowledging that existing debt trajectories are unsustainable—and that bitcoin could play a constructive role.
• Bitcoin adoption continues to broaden, not just institutionally, but demographically.
• The conversation in D.C. is no longer about whether bitcoin survives—it’s about how to integrate it safely, securely, and strategically.

Policy is often slow to catch up to innovation—but the gap is narrowing. Bitcoin is being taken seriously at the highest levels of economic, technological, and geopolitical planning.

Custody, governance, and strategic reserve policy are now in focus. The frameworks are being written. And Onramp is helping shape the next chapter—one where bitcoin becomes a foundational component of institutional portfolios, public balance sheets, and long-term planning.

Chart of the Week

"The USD has now lost more than 10% of its value this year, its worst first half in almost 40 years."

— Barchart on X

Quote of the Week

“Mental flexibility may be the most valuable attribute of the great investors."
“I don’t think we can afford to ignore it [bitcoin] anymore.”

— Philippe Laffont, Founder of Coatue Management

Podcasts of the Week

Are Bitcoin Treasuries the Next Big Thing or the Next Blowup?

In this episode of The Last Trade, hosts Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, & Brian Cubellis, are joined by Richard Byworth of Syz Capital to discuss the rise of bitcoin treasury companies, risks & opportunities investors should weigh, Bill Pulte’s bitcoin mortgage push, insights from the Bitcoin Policy Summit in DC, & more!

Texas Goes ALL-IN on Bitcoin: Front Running Federal Accumulation

In this episode of Final Settlement, hosts Michael Tanguma, Liam Nelson, & Brian Cubellis break down Texas leading the SBR charge, GENIUS Act & stablecoin proliferation, risk factors of BTC PubCos, realities of counterparty risk, & more!

Stablecoin Supercycle: The GENIUS Catalyst for Bitcoin’s Next Surge

In this episode of The Last Trade, hosts Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, & Brian Cubellis, are joined by Stephen Pollock, SVP of Development at BPI, to discuss GENIUS Act implications, stables as a catalyst for adoption, BTC in US policy circles, economic weight of sound money, Bitcoin Policy Summit preview, & more!

Closing Note

Onramp provides bitcoin financial services built on multi-institution custody. To learn more about our products for individuals and institutions, schedule a consultation to chat with us about your situation and needs.

Until next week,

Brian Cubellis