Alex Leishman: We're Not Fixing Money to Build More Casinos | Bitcoin 2026

[music] [applause] >> So the other day I was talking to a long-time River client. And he told me that he he's never been more bullish on Bitcoin. But he's also never been more worried about the people who don't have any. He told me that he gave his nephew some money to start investing. And what he found out what he found out was instead of buying Bitcoin or some long-term investment, his nephew started playing around with prediction markets and lost a lot of it. And I don't think the story is unique. It's happening more and more these days and I you know, I was thinking about well, why is this why is this happening? And I think what we're seeing here is that the American dream is getting harder and harder to reach for the average young person. There are record number of obstacles to having the financial future that young people want, the one that their parents were usually able to achieve. Housing affordability is terrible. The number of 30-year-olds who are married and own a home continues to fall off a cliff. Banks used to be a place where you could build your wealth. Our parents were told, "Hey, put a pet fraction of your paycheck in the bank every 2 weeks and your wealth will compound. You'll earn compounding interest." That's just not the case anymore. You can't save in a bank and build wealth. The interest rates aren't there. The inflation eats it all up. And so you know, with all of this financial uncertainty, with all of these obstacles, more and more young people are coming to the conclusion that they have to gamble or they have to speculate to get anywhere close to the financial future that they want. Historically banking or investing and gambling were two very different things. A bank was a place that kept your money safe. You could make long-term investments in a brokerage account. And you went to a casino to gamble. It was entertainment. You walked into Caesar's Palace. You walked into the Venetian. You played roulette, played poker, have some fun. Two very different things. But more and more recently, we're starting to see this unholy marriage of of banking and finance and and gambling. And the reason this is happening is because companies are starting to prey on this desperation of young people. And we can see it in the numbers. Sports betting continues to skyrocket in popularity. And very recently, prediction markets have unlocked something new. They've unlocked the ability for financial institutions to offer sports betting natively in their apps. Financial institutions whose missions were to democratize finance or uh bring economic freedom to the world are now pushing betting on the Super Bowl or or betting on March Madness. Now, we're in a casino right now. I'm not I'm not saying gambling should be illegal. I like to play a game of roulette when I visit Vegas or bet on my favorite boxer every every few years. But I think we also need to be honest about what's happening. And our the industry the the fintech industry the the crypto industry as a whole shouldn't lie to themselves about what's happening here. Gambling and its and the proliferation of gambling and the normalizing of it in daily as a daily habit and the and the apps that we we trust with our money to build our wealth just isn't good for society. In every jurisdiction that gambling proliferates, personal bankruptcy goes up. Calls to the national gambling helpline have skyrocketed in the last few years. And people are gambling younger and younger. Used to have to walk into a casino to gamble. Now all you need is a a phone app and your parents' debit card and you're off to the races. And so I think what's happening here is that people leading a lot of these newer financial institutions are starting to offer financial products that they actually would never want their kids to use. They would never want their family to use, but they're pushing it on their users. And that's what I think needs to change. So we have at our at our feet kind of two somewhat dystopian futures. This very boring future where we use these old stodgy banks that get your paycheck and don't give you anything in return. And these fintech apps that are telling you that they're democratizing finance but really just pushing sports betting down your throat. So how do we fix this? What's the positive vision here? Well we have to be realistic. You know, we need financial institutions to be able to make money. But they also need to be able but they also should be providing products that benefit their clients. They should be secure. They should be transparent. And they should be available. People need access to their money 24/7 in the modern era. Traditional banking has historically been pretty strong at some things. They've actually had pretty good service and a pretty good track record of security. They've been reliable places to keep your money. But they haven't been win-win. Well, they might have been win-win, but the bank wins both times. And Bitcoin exchanges have also had major benefits for people. They've helped people build a lot of wealth. And they've also had great business models. And they also provide access to this 24/7 payments network. So what I think is that the future of the financial institutions that will drive our society forward towards a positive future are going to start looking like Bitcoin banks. They're going to have the best of banking and the best of Bitcoin exchanges. Bitcoin banks are uniquely positioned. They allow wealth generation without gambling. They allow their clients to succeed while having a viable business model. Because they have a a business model of of typically Bitcoin brokerage, they can afford to pay you the interest you deserve on your cash. They can also operate 24/7 because Bitcoin doesn't sleep and it gives you access to a global payments network, which is a huge upgrade from the fiat network we have today. And they can be far more transparent than banks. Bitcoin allows proof of reserves. Whereas banks can, you know, publish their financial statements, but you don't really know what's happening behind the scenes. And so I think what we're going to see is this slow acceleration towards a trend of all financial institutions slowly starting to look more and more like Bitcoin banks. And we're already seeing this get started. 16 of the top 25 largest banks in the country are already building Bitcoin products. Now I don't think that tomorrow Citibank is going to offer buy Bitcoin on the home screen of their app. It's going to take a while, but these are promising signs. And our industry is also moving more towards banking. But we have a long way to go. We've built some great products in our industry, but we're not known for security and in the Bitcoin space or in the crypto space more broadly especially. Um our industry is also not known for its customer service. Um banks have a leg up there. So we have a long ways to go. And at River we're we're building towards this. You can already get paid to your River account and auto-convert your direct deposits to Bitcoin. You can earn a high-yield interest rate on your cash and that interest is paid in Bitcoin. And you can replace your checking account. You can pay all of your bills from your River account. And our clients are investing for the long term and they're building wealth for the long term. Unlike these sort of speculative gambling apps, 70% of our clients have never sold their Bitcoin. So I think Bitcoin banking gives us a third path forward from two other dystopian futures. But there's so much left to build and there's so much room to grow. We have uh Bitcoin has such a small percentage of global wealth today. It's it has tremendous growth as an asset. The amount of public companies with Bitcoin holdings is still quite small but continues to grow exponentially. Bitcoin held by registered investment advisors is growing reliably every single quarter. And the most powerful financial institutions in the world continue to grow their Bitcoin exposure. And lastly, the biggest institutions of all, the nation states of the world, are continually growing their Bitcoin holdings. Now I know some of you are thinking um you know, some of this is from confiscating other people's Bitcoin and yes, that's true unfortunately, but nonetheless, years ago they would have just sold it. And more importantly, we're seeing that the growth in uh positive regulatory postures towards Bitcoin is accelerating. 50 countries in the last 5 years have increased their their regulatory friendliness to Bitcoin. And so I'll end with this. This is an animation showing uh our planet with a gold dot for every Bitcoin for every business that accepts Bitcoin. And I feel very confident that next year this globe is is to shine even brighter. And I feel very honored to stand alongside all of the great companies here helping make that happen. Thank you. >> [music] >> Every year this community comes together >> [music] >> to celebrate to debate to build what comes next. >> [music] >> And every year the stage [music] gets bigger. Sound money center stage. >> [music] >> So, where do you go to celebrate the next chapter in Bitcoin history? You come home. Nashville, [music] July 2027.