Bitcoin MENA 2025 is set to feature and auction the History of Bitcoin First Edition, a one-of-one fine-art book positioned as a museum-grade physical artifact of bitcoin culture. According to the announcement, the project will serve as a centerpiece of the event’s art program in Abu Dhabi, combining cultural preservation, collaborative artistic production, and fundraising for bitcoin education.
A Physical Artifact Built Around Bitcoin’s Cultural Story
The First Edition was developed over four years by the collective Smashtoshi and brings together work from 128 artists across 37 countries. The book contains 256 pages, a clear nod to bitcoin’s SHA-256 cryptographic foundation, and incorporates more than 40 specialized printing techniques. Organizers describe it as a work designed to bridge bitcoin’s digital origins with a lasting physical form.
The object itself is presented as a high-end collectible. It is housed in a collector’s box made from 5,000-year-old fossilized black oak, bound in bull leather, and finished with a bespoke silver emblem from Asprey Studio. In framing the work this way, the project emphasizes durability and permanence at a time when much of internet-native history is fragmented, ephemeral, or vulnerable to disappearance.
Before arriving in Abu Dhabi, the First Edition has already been shown during a broader international tour that included the UK, Bitcoin Amsterdam, Pubkey in New York, and Mondoir Gallery in Dubai. Its Bitcoin MENA appearance on December 8 is intended as the culmination of that exhibition run, presented in a dedicated multi-wall installation inside the Bitcoin MENA Art Gallery.
Majority of Proceeds Earmarked for Bitcoin Education
One of the most notable elements of the project is its charitable structure. Smashtoshi says 79% of all auction proceeds will be donated to My First Bitcoin, a nonprofit focused on community-led bitcoin education. The remaining 21% will be distributed among the 128 participating artists whose commissioned works make up the book.
My First Bitcoin is described as a leading nonprofit in bitcoin education, with the goal of expanding accessible learning to more than 200 million learners worldwide. The organization already operates structured educational programs across Latin America and is continuing to expand internationally. In that context, the auction is being framed not only as a sale of a rare cultural object, but also as a direct mechanism to fund educational outreach.
That educational angle gives the piece a dual identity. For collectors, it is presented as both a singular artifact tied to bitcoin’s historical development and a philanthropic purchase linked to the spread of bitcoin literacy. The event therefore places artistic value, symbolic value, and social impact into the same package.
An Art Project Rooted in Historical Interpretation
The broader History of Bitcoin project draws on multiple layers of source material and interpretation. It includes 128 commissioned artworks that reinterpret key moments spanning 1979 to 2025, effectively widening the timeline beyond bitcoin’s 2009 launch to include earlier intellectual and technological influences. The project also incorporates more than 100 interviews with early bitcoin contributors and notable figures, including Martti Malmi, Max Keiser, Samson Mow, Trace Mayer, and Aaron van Wirdum.
Visual and conceptual contributions come from a roster of well-known artists such as Jesse Draxler, GMUNK, Billelis, Cypherpunk Now, Ryan Koopmans, Jenni Pasanen, Robert Alice, Jake Fried, and Hackatao, among others. The announcement notes that the collective markets of participating artists exceed $250 million in art sales, a detail that reinforces the project’s positioning within both bitcoin culture and the contemporary art market.
At Bitcoin MENA, the installation will feature selected artworks, projected visuals, supporting research volumes, and live auction coverage. Organizers say the goal is to transform a technical and often abstract history into something more immediate and human through visual storytelling. Rather than documenting bitcoin solely as software or monetary infrastructure, the exhibition seeks to frame it as a cultural movement shaped by breakthroughs, disputes, personalities, and moments of ideological change.
Beyond the One-of-One Edition
The First Edition is only one part of a broader publishing concept. After the auction concludes, the team plans to release 2,139 Collector’s Editions. Each edition will contain a unique fragment of bitcoin’s original source code, with the full set collectively representing the entire codebase. Symbolically, that structure mirrors bitcoin’s decentralized design: no single copy contains everything, but the distributed whole does.
The project is also paired with a companion research volume for note-taking, a public digital archive at historyofbitcoin.io, and a global series of talks and exhibitions. Together, these components suggest that the initiative is trying to operate across several layers at once: as archival documentation, artistic interpretation, educational infrastructure, and collectible publishing.
Auction Timeline and Event Details
The online auction is being hosted by Scarce.city. According to the release, preview access is already live online, with in-person events having taken place at Pubkey in New York on December 1 and at Mondoir Gallery in Dubai on December 4. The bidding window runs from December 1 to December 10, with the auction concluding on December 11.
The Abu Dhabi exhibition will coincide with Bitcoin MENA at ADNEC on December 8. Visitors can expect curator-led walkthroughs, gallery programming, LED wall features across the venue, media access, and appearances from members of the Smashtoshi team. The event is organized within the wider Bitcoin Conference series by BTC Media, the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine.
In practical terms, the project gives Bitcoin MENA a flagship cultural object around which to build its art programming. In symbolic terms, it reflects a broader trend within the bitcoin ecosystem: the effort to preserve and materialize a history that has largely unfolded online, while using that historical narrative to support future education. Whether approached as a rare book, an art object, or a fundraising instrument, the First Edition is being positioned as one of the event’s defining attractions.