On paper the US is often framed as a leader in financial innovation yet when it comes to actual transactional use of Bitcoin or Lightning it is far behind several European countries and even some developing nations. This is not an accident.
Part of the problem is that in the US Bitcoin has been financialized into an asset class rather than embraced as a medium of exchange. The focus has been on ETFs spot price speculation and accumulation rather than building consumer level payment rails. That narrative dominates because it fits within existing financial institutions and lets Wall Street monetize it without changing the underlying payment infrastructure that everyday people use.
Europe by contrast has pockets of real-world adoption not necessarily because they have fewer regulations but because in certain communities and regions there is interest in creating tangible use cases. Switzerland’s Lugano is a perfect example of a city embracing Bitcoin as an economic experiment and committing to actually making it spendable. That type of civic decision-making matters because adoption ultimately grows when merchants see value and users can spend with ease.
On paper the US is often framed as a leader in financial innovation yet when it comes to actual transactional use of Bitcoin or Lightning it is far behind several European countries and even some developing nations. This is not an accident.
Part of the problem is that in the US Bitcoin has been financialized into an asset class rather than embraced as a medium of exchange. The focus has been on ETFs spot price speculation and accumulation rather than building consumer level payment rails. That narrative dominates because it fits within existing financial institutions and lets Wall Street monetize it without changing the underlying payment infrastructure that everyday people use.
Europe by contrast has pockets of real-world adoption not necessarily because they have fewer regulations but because in certain communities and regions there is interest in creating tangible use cases. Switzerland’s Lugano is a perfect example of a city embracing Bitcoin as an economic experiment and committing to actually making it spendable. That type of civic decision-making matters because adoption ultimately grows when merchants see value and users can spend with ease.