Bitcoin 2026 Takeaways

NYDIG's Greg Cipolaro and Pete Janney are back from Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas with takeaways from a week of high-quality meetings, panels, and institutional conversations. Across lending markets, capital structures, payments, and infrastructure, the throughline was clear: institutional building around bitcoin has continued at full pace, with serious capital and serious operators showing up to do the work.Greg and Pete walk through the themes that dominated the week, including the rapid expansion of bitcoin-backed lending on both the institutional and consumer sides, growing momentum behind DAT capital structures like Strategy's STRC and Strive's SATA, and the narrowing spread between DeFi and CeFi borrowing rates in the wake of the Aave fallout. They also dig into Block's expanding payments footprint, with 800,000 merchants now accepting bitcoin, the quantum question that infused nearly every conversation, and the tension between OG bitcoiners and the institutional ownership now reshaping the asset.