Bitcoin MENA 2025 is set to place cultural preservation, artistic collaboration, and Bitcoin education at the center of its program through the exhibition and auction of the History of Bitcoin First Edition, a one-of-one fine-art book presented as a museum-grade physical artifact. The work will be featured as the headline auction lot on Scarce.city and will culminate in a dedicated installation in Abu Dhabi during the conference.
A Physical Artifact Designed to Chronicle Bitcoin’s Story
According to the announcement, the First Edition took four years to create and involved 128 artists from 37 countries. The book spans 256 pages, a structure intended to reference Bitcoin’s SHA-256 cryptographic foundation. Its production reportedly incorporates more than 40 specialized print techniques, while the finished object is housed in a collector’s box made from 5,000-year-old fossilized black oak, bound in bull leather, and marked with a custom silver emblem from Asprey Studio.
The project aims to turn Bitcoin’s largely digital history into a durable, tactile cultural record. Rather than presenting Bitcoin only as software or finance, the book frames it as a broader technological and social movement, documenting its path from cypherpunk roots to global relevance. In that sense, the First Edition is positioned not simply as a collectible, but as a statement about preserving Bitcoin’s history in a medium intended to outlast short-lived digital formats.
Built From Interviews, Art, and Historical Interpretation
The book combines commissioned art with historical research. Organizers say the project includes 128 commissioned artworks reinterpreting major moments from 1979 to 2025. It also draws on more than 100 interviews with early Bitcoin contributors and industry figures, including Martti Malmi, Max Keiser, Samson Mow, Trace Mayer, and Aaron van Wirdum.
The announcement also highlights contributions from a range of recognized artists, including Jesse Draxler, GMUNK, Billelis, Cypherpunk Now, Ryan Koopmans, Jenni Pasanen, Robert Alice, Jake Fried, and Hackatao. Together, these elements are intended to transform Bitcoin’s technical and ideological milestones into a more accessible visual narrative, one that can be studied as history but also experienced emotionally through art and design.
79% of Auction Proceeds Earmarked for Bitcoin Education
A central part of the project is its educational mission. The collective behind the book, Smashtoshi, has pledged 79% of all auction proceeds to My First Bitcoin, a nonprofit focused on community-led Bitcoin education. The remaining 21% will be distributed among the 128 participating artists whose work forms the core of the publication.
Organizers describe My First Bitcoin as a leading nonprofit in the Bitcoin education space, with structured programs already active across Latin America and expanding internationally. The stated ambition is to make accessible Bitcoin education available to more than 200 million learners worldwide. As a result, the auction is being framed not just as a sale of a rare object, but as a fundraising mechanism tied directly to educational outreach.
For collectors, this creates a dual proposition: ownership of a singular cultural artifact and participation in a broader effort to expand Bitcoin literacy globally. That combination of scarcity, symbolic value, and philanthropic utility appears to be a major part of how the First Edition is being positioned within the conference.
A Centerpiece for the Bitcoin MENA Art Program
At Bitcoin MENA, the First Edition will serve as the anchor of the event’s art program. The installation in Abu Dhabi is expected to include selected artworks, projected visuals, supporting research volumes, and live auction coverage. Curator-led walkthroughs, venue-wide LED wall features, press access, and appearances from members of the Smashtoshi team are also planned as part of the presentation.
The exhibition follows earlier stops in the UK, at Bitcoin Amsterdam, at Pubkey in New York, and at Mondoir Gallery in Dubai. The Abu Dhabi showcase on December 8 is being presented as the culminating stop in that global tour. The online auction preview is already live, while the bidding window runs from December 1 to December 10 and concludes on December 11.
This conference placement is notable because it expands the role of a Bitcoin industry event beyond panels, trading narratives, or corporate announcements. By foregrounding a physical art object tied to historical memory and educational funding, Bitcoin MENA appears to be making a deliberate statement about Bitcoin as culture, not merely as code or capital.
Collector’s Editions Planned After the One-of-One Sale
Following the auction of the unique First Edition, the project 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 complete codebase. The organizers present this structure as a symbolic nod to decentralization: no single edition contains the whole, but together they form a complete historical and conceptual record.
The broader initiative also includes a companion research volume for note-taking, a public digital archive hosted at historyofbitcoin.io, and a global series of talks and exhibitions. These additions suggest that the project is intended to operate on multiple levels at once: premium collectible, educational resource, archival effort, and traveling cultural exhibition.
What the Announcement Signals
The announcement reflects a wider trend in the Bitcoin ecosystem, where history, identity, and cultural preservation are increasingly being treated as strategic concerns alongside technology and adoption. The emphasis on physical permanence is especially striking. Organizers explicitly contrast the book’s material presence with the fragility of online memory, arguing that important pieces of internet-era history can disappear over time if they are not preserved in enduring formats.
Within that context, the History of Bitcoin First Edition functions as more than a luxury object. It is being used to connect several themes at once: the archiving of Bitcoin’s past, the commissioning of contemporary artistic interpretation, and the funding of future educational access. Whether viewed as a collectible, a cultural record, or a fundraising instrument, it is positioned to be one of the most distinctive non-technical features of Bitcoin MENA 2025.
Bitcoin MENA is organized under The Bitcoin Conference series by BTC Media, the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine. The broader event portfolio includes international editions in locations such as Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and Abu Dhabi, while the flagship 2025 event took place in Las Vegas. In that global conference context, the Abu Dhabi exhibition gives the First Edition an audience that spans developers, investors, artists, educators, and long-time Bitcoin advocates.
As the bidding period unfolds, the market response will likely determine how strongly collectors value the combination of rarity, craftsmanship, and mission-driven fundraising. But even before the hammer falls, the project has already established itself as an effort to package Bitcoin’s history into a form meant to be preserved, displayed, and debated for years to come.