The Bitcoin Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG) is a year-round cultural institution based in Nashville that unifies the Bitcoin Conference Art Galleries with a permanent museum platform. BMAG formalizes more than five years of global art programming developed through the Bitcoin Conference into an institutional model focused on collecting, exhibition, research, and long-term cultural stewardship.
The conference art galleries remain BMAG’s primary engine—introducing new work, facilitating exchange, and serving as the main point of discovery, sales, and cultural experimentation—while the museum provides continuity, preservation, and long-term context.
Since 2019, when BTC Inc revived the Bitcoin Conference in San Francisco, the company has served as one of the most active patrons of Bitcoin-related art. What began as a modest gallery adjacent to the main stage quickly became a defining feature of the conference, evolving into a central cultural platform where art, money, and community converged in real time.
Early galleries featured artists who would become foundational figures in the space, including Cryptograffiti, Rare Scrilla, Josie Bellini, Trevor Jones, and others. Murals, installations, and exhibitions helped establish the visual language of Bitcoin culture, while all works were priced in bitcoin—demonstrating Bitcoin’s viability as money within cultural markets.
By Bitcoin 2022 in Miami, the gallery expanded to feature more than 100 artists, marking a shift from temporary exhibition toward sustained institutional collecting. During this period, BTC Inc founder David Bailey and Tommy Marcheschi, Artist-in-Residence and Head of Museum Operations, began actively acquiring works first presented at the conference galleries, acting as anchor buyers and long-term stewards
"We value Bitcoin art so highly because we understand how important this movement is, and how important art is to cultural movements. So we set an amount we wanted to spend and blew right past it each year, until we had this collection. Now we have built our own platform for artists, and we invite everyone to try and outbid us."
– Tommy Marcheschi, Designer & Museum Ops, BMAG
These acquisitions continued through Miami 2023, Nashville 2024, and Las Vegas 2025, alongside significant donations from artists and collectors. Today, BMAG’s permanent collection comprises more than 200 artworks and historical artifacts, the majority of which originated in or were first presented through the Bitcoin Conference Art Galleries.
BMAG’s curatorial approach balances artistic merit with cultural authenticity. Conference galleries allow work to be tested publicly among a global audience embedded in Bitcoin’s ideas, while the museum provides the framework to preserve what endures.
The institution seeks work that demonstrates technical skill, conceptual depth, and visual impact, while capturing something genuine about Bitcoin culture—even when that expression is irreverent, meme-driven, or unconventional. This dual literacy—grounded in art history and fluent in Bitcoin’s technological and cultural context—allows BMAG to evaluate work not only for its formal qualities, but for its significance within the movement.
BMAG maintains rigorous standards for authentication, provenance, and collection management. Works are typically identified, contextualized, and vetted through conference exhibitions before entering the permanent collection, ensuring acquisitions reflect both artistic merit and cultural relevance.
The collection includes artworks alongside historically significant materials connected to key figures and moments in Bitcoin’s history, including items associated with Hal Finney and Ross Ulbricht. These works and artifacts are presented with care and context, acknowledging both their cultural importance and the complexity of the histories they represent.
BMAG’s Nashville gallery provides a professional exhibition environment designed to museum standards. It serves as a year-round anchor—housing the permanent collection, hosting longer-duration exhibitions, and extending the life of work first introduced at global conference events.
In parallel, BMAG maintains a digital presence that allows global access to exhibitions, collection highlights, and research materials, reflecting the international and networked nature of the Bitcoin community.
Bitcoin represents more than a technological protocol—it reflects ideas about sovereignty, freedom, coordination, and time. These ideas have produced a visual culture and material history that has unfolded in real time through conferences, gatherings, and exchange.
BMAG exists to preserve what emerges from those moments without separating culture from the places where it is lived, debated, and valued. As future generations seek to understand how Bitcoin reshaped money and society, BMAG serves as an institutional record of that cultural transformation.
BMAG reviews proposals and collection inquiries on a rolling basis across its permanent museum, conference art galleries, and special cultural initiatives.
In addition to curated exhibitions and commissioned projects, BMAG welcomes outreach from collectors, artists, and organizations with exceptional or historically significant Bitcoin-related items that may be appropriate for consideration within the museum’s collection or future displays.
BMAG programs are curator-led, and all submissions are reviewed based on historical relevance, cultural significance, scope, and current programming priorities. Submission does not guarantee review or response. If a proposal or item aligns with an upcoming initiative, a member of the BMAG team will reach out directly.
BMAG reviews proposals and collection inquiries on a rolling basis across its permanent museum, conference art galleries, and special cultural initiatives.
What we're seeking:
Artworks
Hardware wallets
Casascius coins / early paper wallets
Bitcoin miners / hashing hardware
First edition books / manuscripts
Historically significant items
Bitcoin memorabilia
Corporate material from bankrupt companies
The ability to schedule a tour appointment will become available mid-January.
BMAG staff will give private tours by appointment only, starting January 21, 2026.
For our events schedule, visit the Exhibitions page.
