You're Still Here.

Don't go anywhere - there is still important work to be done.

The most difficult time to be a creator or author in the world of Bitcoin is when the dollar price is bottoming out.

My stomach drops a little when I see a Bitcoin price dip. Not because I am worried about my own Bitcoin position or I’m getting nervous about my ‘net worth’ dropping, but because I know that fewer people will feel like consuming Bitcoin content.

It means that I can put a huge amount of effort into producing the greatest video I’ve ever made, interviewing the most amazing person on a podcast, or writing the best article, and interest is likely to fall flat.

For a Bitcoin creator, our business follows the 4-year cycle (if you believe it’s still in play). We don’t have to produce anything particularly noteworthy when the Bitcoin price is going vertical, and the viewers, followers, and subscribers arrive in droves.

To the contrary, a sub-$60K Bitcoin in 2026 means the Bitcoin creator has to work five times as hard just to stay in place.

I don’t blame anyone for this. While the most seasoned, unflappable Bitcoiners may merely shrug off a 50% drop in USD price from Bitcoin’s all-time high, for the newer or the merely curious, fending off FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) takes an extremely strong stomach.

Sometimes we just want to switch off completely and pretend that it’s just not happening.

For me personally, it also makes every new viewer or subscriber that much more valuable.

I truly appreciate the people who still are discovering and learning about Bitcoin while the majority of the online world shrieks at them that they are deluded lunatics - and hey, while you’re at it - LOOK AT THE S&P500 GAINS YOU MISSED!!

I recently returned from the BTC Prague conference, where I attended in my new role as a member of The Bitcoin Way team. I saw with my own eyes that a falling fiat price has very little effect on the willingness of Bitcoiners to come together and - well, frankly speaking - not be the only weirdo in the room. (I say that with tongue firmly in cheek, as a proud Bitcoin weirdo in my daily life!)

I am still kicking myself. How did I, who started my Bitcoin creator journey completely alone a little over a year ago, end up in a room surrounded by hundreds - no, thousands of fellow Bitcoiners? I could not have cared less what I price was doing while I was in Prague - I never looked once. I was with my tribe, and it was amazing.

But something I did notice was a tepid response to the King of Suitcoiners, Michael Saylor. Saylor took to the stage in Prague, and his keynote was…long. Look, I get it. He has the star power. He’s a billionaire. He has created multiple products out of Bitcoin.

I used to listen to Saylor back in 2020, when he was the CEO of a small, unremarkable software company that had decided to create a Bitcoin treasury. He was genuinely interesting back then - albeit a little obtuse.

But by 2026 in Prague, he seemed to have lost his ability to move the listener. He rattled off the pros of legacy finance-wrapped Bitcoin products. He went 20 minutes over time and made me stand on tired feet for far longer than I had anticipated. I found myself looking at my watch, wondering when he was going to finish. He didn’t move me in any way, shape or form.

When Saylor had finally finished droning, and was presumably whisked away by his people to the black-tinted-window car waiting out the back (to avoid the stench of the Bitcoin plebs), a breath of fresh air took to the stage, pushing all that stale legacy financial air right out of the room. Tony Yazbeck, co-founder of The Bitcoin Way, gave his second legendary Prague speech.

Now I want to be clear about something. I caught Tony’s first Prague speech in 2025 when it was published on YouTube. I didn’t know who Tony was. I had scarcely even heard of The Bitcoin Way, let alone be working with them. I just have a bad habit of going to sleep while listening to podcasts.

As I drifted off one night, YouTube autoplayed Tony’s speech. In an instant I was jolted awake as he told his story of collapse in Lebanon. His speech planted the seed that has sprouted into a tree since then.

I finally got it. Bitcoin wasn’t about fiat. It wasn’t about the dollar price, or yield, or loans, or other legacy financial products. Bitcoin was freedom - freedom from custodians, from third parties, from the system that has us dancing like puppets from a string at our every waking moment.

Bitcoin was money, but more than that, it opened your eyes to so many other questions. And that, my friends, is what they call the rabbit hole. It’s deep, twisting, and never-ending, and once you see Bitcoin, there is no way to unsee it. You are spoiled for life, and there is no going back to your former state of blissful ignorance.

Tony’s second Prague keynote was no less engaging, and in fact, there were many people who welled up during his talk. He spoke of his father, who was forced to rebuild his life - not once, not twice, but three times. Once in Lebanon, once in Madagascar, and once in Kuwait.

You need to go and watch the story for yourself, but the TLDR is that Tony found himself in the same position as his father (Lebanon, 2019), but the difference was that Tony had another option - Bitcoin.

So, back to being a Bitcoin creator during a Bitcoin slump. You feel like you are fighting this uphill battle. You are screaming from the rooftops, but people can’t hear you because the dollar price action is so noisy that it blocks all other sounds. If you make money from your content, your income tends to dry up.

But for me, that is not the issue. I just want to reach as many people as I can with the message that Bitcoin is a form of digital freedom. If you open your eyes and start questioning everything that you simply take for granted, you will come to understand this. You will see that fiat is a form of slavery - and the chains of that slavery are only becoming heavier and more restrictive as its value falls.

If you can make it through this so-called Bitcoin bear market with your belief in Bitcoin and - by extension - your stack intact, then you are one of the true ones. Nothing about Bitcoin will rattle you. In fact, I believe this is the best time to knuckle down and learn as much as you can.

Learn how to secure your Bitcoin in self-custody. Learn how to build your stack without relying on KYC exchanges. Learn to bear the noise and negativity, and not let them play mind games with you. These are things you don’t wake up one day just knowing how to do. You need to learn through experience, and oftentimes that experience is challenging and even gut-wrenching.

The bear market isn't the obstacle - it's the way. The noise, the negativity, the S&P500 and precious metals crowds screaming "I told you so". All of it is the price of admission to something they are yet to comprehend.

Every price dip shakes loose the ones who were only ever here for number-go-up. But you're still here, still reading and still learning. That is the key. Stack sats, secure your keys, and keep your eyes open, because while everyone else looks away in fear, you are becoming ungovernable.

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