The U.S. debt crossed $40 trillion on August 18. The bigger story is the interest bill, which CBO projects will roughly double by 2036.
Sources: U.S. Treasury, Debt to the Penny (Aug. 18, 2026); CBO Director's Statement (Feb. 11, 2026).
Read & watch the lessonOctober 31, 2008
Satoshi Nakamoto shared "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" on a cryptography mailing list, about six weeks after Lehman Brothers collapsed.
1933
Thirty-eight years before the gold window closed for foreign governments, ordinary Americans had already lost the right to swap dollars for gold.
Follow the money1933 on the timelineGold standard
Pick a range, switch to log scale, and drag across the chart to read any date. H marks each halving.
Mockup: rough year-end prices for design only. Real daily prices replace this before it goes live.
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H = halving · drag or hover to read a price
In a few years, Bitcoin went from being dismissed as a fad to something regulators, the Fed and the world's biggest asset managers discuss on the record. Here is what they actually said, in their own documents.
BlackRock launches a private Bitcoin trust for institutional clients.
ForbesEleven funds that hold actual bitcoin can trade on U.S. stock exchanges.
SEC statementA presentation to the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee on digital assets and the Treasury market.
Treasury (PDF)The Fed chair compares Bitcoin to gold rather than to the dollar.
Yahoo FinanceFollow the moneyBitcoinPrice chartReserve Watch
Governments, countries and U.S. states, checked on the 1st of every month.
Most of it was seized from criminals, not bought. Only a few countries chose to buy or mine it.
Not on this list: Some trackers list Ukraine with ~46,000 BTC. That is what Ukrainian officials declared owning personally in 2021, not a government reserve. Decrypt
Bitcoin held by national governments, as of October 21, 2026; checked monthly. Bars to scale.
Who holds it, who's building a reserve, who sold or reversed course, and who bans it. Tap a country.
Tap a country to see its story.
30 countries, one tile each, not to scale. As of October 21, 2026. Sources: AMBCrypto, government holdings (Oct. 15, 2026) · Czech National Bank, first test portfolio · The Block, Pakistan reserve · Trend, Kazakhstan crypto reserve · Launch Base Africa, Algeria's crypto law · The Block, Germany's sale · Central Banking, CAR drops crypto · The Himalayan Times, Nepal ban.
Since 2025, more than a dozen states have tried to let their treasuries hold bitcoin. Three made it into law; most bills died. (Red marks failures we've confirmed; gray states may have tried too.)
Tap a state to see its bill.
~328,372 BTC
Bitcoin forfeited to the government; no purchases so far. Created by executive order, March 6, 2025.
One tile per state, not to scale. Status as of October 21, 2026; checked monthly. Sources: Bex, US States Lead the Bitcoin Reserve Race (Mar. 10, 2026) · Decrypt, These US States Have Passed Bitcoin Reserve Laws (Jul. 21, 2025) · Florida Senate, HB 1039 (2026) bill history; federal holdings: Benzinga, Sept. 2026 (via verified-figures ledger).
Drag the handle to compare 2000 and 2026.
In 2000 a Big Mac cost $2.24, or 26 minutes of work at the $5.15 federal minimum wage. In July 2026 it cost $6.22, or 51 minutes at $7.25.
Big Mac: The Economist, U.S. reference price, April 2000 and July 2026. Minimum wage: U.S. Department of Labor. Minutes = price ÷ (hourly wage ÷ 60).
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