Buying Bitcoin with Operating Profit: Wall Street's Tether Capital, Merger of Mining and Remittance Settlement Companies | Seo Dong-ju, Kim Dong-hwan, Baek Hoon-jong CEO of SmashFi [Crypto PLUS]

Summary

Baek Hoon-jong, CEO of SmashFi, shares insights from the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas, where attendance hit 40,000 despite the bear market. He discusses Tether's growing crypto ecosystem, the announcement of a three-way merger between Strike, 21 (XXI), and mining firm Electron Energy, and his preference for the merged entity's operating-income model over Strategy's debt-based accumulation. He also predicts that Bitcoin miners who pivoted to AI will return to mining as AI hype fades.

• Bitcoin 2026 conference attracted over 40,000 attendees, a record for a bear-market event.
• Tether is actively building a dual-currency ecosystem combining Bitcoin and stablecoin payments.
• Strike, 21 (XXI), and Electron Energy announced a three-way merger to create a vertically integrated Bitcoin company.
• Baek Hoon-jong favors the merged company's model of generating operating income to buy Bitcoin over Strategy's debt-funded approach.
• Bitcoin mining firms that shifted to AI data centers are expected to pivot back to mining amid AI overvaluation concerns.
• New Bitcoin yield products and DeFi services are emerging rapidly, aiming to generate interest income for holders.
• The quantum computing threat to Bitcoin was a major topic, with the community divided on how to respond.