The Bitcoin Treasuries Podcast with Tim Kotzman The Bitcoin Journey with Adam Back
Oct 15, 2025
In a fascinating discussion, Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, shares insights on the evolution of Bitcoin treasury companies and their journey, highlighting lessons from MicroStrategy. He explores expectations for the current cycle's length and how Bitcoin resembles rugby in its resilience. Adam also delves into the necessity for treasury firms to keep pace with code changes and speculates on the future of developers in the Bitcoin space. Plus, discover his first encounter with the Bitcoin Whitepaper and the complexities surrounding the Taproot upgrade.
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Structure Raises To Preserve Cost Basis
- Offer mechanisms that let bitcoin holders invest without triggering immediate tax events.
- Use in-kind or tax-aware structures to avoid recursive taxable sales when onboarding early Bitcoin capital.
Adam’s Role: Ideas Over Operations
- Adam splits focus across Blockstream product teams and Bitcoin treasury efforts rather than day-to-day ops.
- He acts as ideas lead while experienced managers run operations and institutional asset management.
Receiving The Whitepaper From Satoshi
- Adam received the whitepaper directly from Satoshi and had prior Hashcash research context.
- He immediately saw Nakamoto's decentralized ledger as a novel practical solution and later worked on improving privacy.