About this episode
In this episode of Bullish on Bitcoin from 2025, which was recorded as an X audio space, Alexei sits down with Nic Carter, co-founder of Castle Island Ventures and one of the most influential voices in Bitcoin — the man who coined the term "Operation Choke Point 2.0" and spent years documenting the US government's informal campaign to cut crypto off from banking. A blockchain analytics pioneer, former Fidelity crypto analyst, and self-described proof-of-reserves enthusiast, Nic brings a uniquely policy-literate and data-driven perspective to where Bitcoin stands today.
This wide-ranging conversation spans the most consequential six months in US Bitcoin policy history — the end of Choke Point 2.0, the Bitcoin strategic reserve debate, SAB 121's repeal, and the SEC's dramatic reversal — before diving into the deeper questions: will Bitcoin become too American? What does the east/west split in Bitcoin adoption really mean? And can Bitcoin L2s realistically save the miners as block rewards continue to halve?
In this episode we discuss:
- Nic's origin story: the Reddit magic internet money wizard, Dogecoin mining, Edinburgh, Coin Metrics, and Castle Island
- Operation Choke Point 2.0: what it was, why it mattered, and why it's mostly over now
- The stablecoin bill and market structure legislation: what's actually likely to pass in the US
- The SEC's dramatic reversal: why it matters even for builders who don't care about altcoins
- Nic's honest reservations about the Bitcoin strategic reserve — and the risk of Bitcoin becoming "too American"
- US mining onshoring: why Lutnick's push for domestic majority mining raises subtle centralisation concerns
- East vs west Bitcoin adoption split: western retail is conservative, APAC retail experiments; institutions flip the script
- SAB 121 repeal and what it means: banks can finally custody Bitcoin, the last institutional unlock
- The big institutional driver for Bitcoin DeFi: treasury managers want yield, and that pressure is building
- Bitcoin ossification: why the largest BTC holders are now actively opposed to protocol changes
- The Bitcoin fee sustainability problem: what happens after the next halving if price growth stalls?
- Bitcoin L2s as the realistic path: merge mining, staking, and why full rollups will price themselves out early on
- BOB's pragmatic approach: phase one (Bitcoin staking), phase two (trust-minimised bridges), phase three (full rollup)
- Does a US strategic Bitcoin reserve strengthen or weaken the case for Bitcoin L2s? Nic and Alexei's verdict
