It’s funny, when Thomas Pacchia, the boss of PubKey, first proposed to Trump’s campaign team, “What if we set up a Bitcoin-themed bar as a campaign stop?” Guess what? They were confused: “Bitcoin bar? What the hell?” But guess what? Last Wednesday, on his way to a rally in Long Island, Trump actually stopped by PubKey and bought a burger with Bitcoin! This was the first time a (former) US president had ever used Bitcoin for a transaction. Pretty cool!
Pacchia, the founder of PubKey, had been thinking about turning this West Village bar near Washington Square Park into a civic bar two years ago. He wanted it to be a place where people could chat about monetary policy and politics over a beer, just like the founding fathers did 250 years ago. So he wasn't surprised when a future president dropped by unexpectedly. PubKey has previously hosted politicians like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Pacchia has invited other presidential candidates, including Kamala Harris.
But the details of Trump's visit were even more explosive. Pacchia only found out a week in advance, and then spent four hours a day with the Secret Service to make a reception plan, cover the skylights, arrange snipers, and everything else. A day after Trump's visit, Pacchia complained to Fortune magazine: "This is crazy. The bar staff are busy resuming normal business."
Pacchia is not your average Manhattan bar owner. He is a former lawyer who became the first external employee with Bitcoin expertise at financial services giant Fidelity in 2015. Under the leadership of CEO Abigail Johnson, Fidelity entered the cryptocurrency field, and Pacchia helped build the Fidelity Digital Assets business structure, custody, trading platform, and early mining business.
Although Pacchia is now focusing on PubKey, with plans to open a new store in Washington, D.C., and even expand to other cities, he has not forgotten the cryptocurrency industry. He also serves on the board of directors of Stronghold Digital Mining and serves as an advisor to Luxor, another bitcoin mining company.
Pacchia used to live near PubKey, which used to be a bar called Formerly Crow's. "It was an epic, quintessential New York underground bar," he said. He would get together with friends to talk about Bitcoin and named the party Crypto at the Crow. Later, Formerly Crow's closed during the epidemic, so Pacchia decided to start PubKey.
“Bitcoin needs its bars and its meeting rooms to foster some of the revolutionary, cultural, economic, and technological changes that it’s driving,” Pacchia told Fortune. He teamed up with two experienced restaurateurs and a former Eleven Madison Park chef to design a menu that would attract neighborhood residents and cryptocurrency enthusiasts alike, with burgers, hot dogs, and cocktails.
Although PubKey is decorated with a Bitcoin theme, the customers are still diverse. Last November, Pacchia noticed a couple at the end of the bar who looked like they had just finished a long day at work. He walked over to chat with them, and they asked about this strange theme (Bitcoin). When Pacchia told them about PubKey's Bitcoin spirit, they were shocked and said, "Are you kidding us?" It turned out that they were photographers for the New York Post and had also photographed FTX executive Caroline Ellison! She happened to live nearby and testified in the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried. The couple came to PubKey by chance.
Trump first got involved in cryptocurrency in 2022 with the launch of his NFT collection. While he has been hesitant about cryptocurrency, his attitude has changed as the crypto industry has become one of the big funders in the 2024 election cycle. Now, Trump is embracing blockchain and has adopted some industry recommendations, such as releasing Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and firing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
However, Trump has not won everyone's support. Some people still remember that he called Bitcoin a "scam" a few years ago. Moreover, his recently announced so-called DeFi protocol World Liberty Financial, which is operated by the Trump family, has also been criticized by critics as a way to make money rather than a sincere desire to build a decentralized product.
When Trump visited PubKey, he had not yet mastered some of the esoteric terms in the industry, and he called the food he sold "crypto burgers" instead of "bitcoin burgers." This is important to Bitcoin loyalists who regard other tokens as "shit coins." Moreover, the video of the historic burger transaction initially showed that the transaction failed, and Pacchia said that the camera flash made it difficult to scan the QR code. He also added that about 5% of PubKey's sales came from Bitcoin, which is real data!
Pacchia quickly understood Trump's behavior. He told Fortune magazine: "It takes a long learning process to understand the difference between Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. It is unrealistic to expect these politicians to become Bitcoin experts."
Trump’s visit confirmed Pacchia’s decision to start PubKey. He also gave the former president two gifts! The first was a replica of the famous “Buy Bitcoin” sign. One of PubKey’s founding partners held the sign behind then-Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen during a 2017 congressional hearing, a historic moment! The second was an American flag, which another PubKey patron commissioned from Senator Elizabeth Warren as a prank to hang over the U.S. Capitol in honor of Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Still, Pacchia insisted PubKey would not endorse a particular president.
