Tucked away on a not-so-busy street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan is a bar that has grown to become a dominant cultural force among New York City’s Bitcoin community.
PubKey, a Bitcoin-centric dive bar, offers craft beers, cocktails, a food menu prepared by a world-renowned chef — and the chance to be orange-pilled by some of Bitcoin’s most vocal proponents.
At first glance, it’s not entirely obvious to outsiders that it is a Bitcoin bar. Thomas Pacchia, one of PubKey’s owners, estimates that roughly 80% of PubKey’s patrons don’t even know it’s a Bitcoin bar. They just see it as a cool neighborhood tavern.
“We try to bury a lot of the Bitcoin elements to a certain extent because, I would say, for most people, Bitcoin is off-putting,” he explains.
But the signs are all there if you know what to look for. The first clue is in the name: PubKey, short for “public key” and a clever play on the fact that it is both a pub and a Bitcoin cultural center.
A display shelf behind the bar is filled with books like The Book Of Satoshi by Phil Champagne and Broken Money by Lyn Alden, as well as Russian nesting dolls of Sam Bankman-Fried, Su Zhu, Alex Mashinsky and Do Kwon — the four horsemen of last cycle’s crypto apocalypse. There are two numerical displays with a running count of Bitcoin’s current price and block number.
And while visitors are there, they may overhear someone talking about Bitcoin, notice some of the crypto-themed decorations, or poke their head into one of the many events hosted in the bar’s backroom. On the night Magazine visits on June 11, Bitcoin podcaster and Real Bedford FC chairman Peter McCormack and his son Conor are speaking about the importance of Bitcoin culture.
“I think real-world connections are really important,” McCormack tells Magazine when asked about why Bitcoiners need a physical space like PubKey. “I think being with people in person is really important. The podcasts, I always insist on doing them in person. I think we need that. And so yeah, I 100% think these physical spaces are hugely important. I think we need a lot more of them.”
And who knows, the undercurrent of Bitcoin content might inspire the normies, many of whom come in and listen to a few minutes of the talk, to want to learn more. As Pacchia puts it:
“It’s really difficult to get somebody excited about it when you’re just telling them about it. But if somebody asks the first question, it’s a completely different conversation.”
For those in the know, the bar offers the option to pay with Bitcoin via the Lightning Network, but only 5% to 7% of customers actually choose to pay in sats on any given day. That percentage naturally rises when there are Bitcoin-specific events.
Any coins the bar does receive are hodled in what could be described as a Bitcoin treasury of sorts. “We were doing it before it was cool,” quips Pacchia.
Bridging dive bar culture with Bitcoin
PubKey opened up in late 2022 to a decent amount of attention from local media, which latched onto the unique angle of a crypto bar opening in NYC. The inspiration to open up the establishment came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, when countless neighborhood dive bars had to close or were at risk of shutting down, including one of Pacchia’s favorite spots.
Pacchia saw the moment as an opportunity to combine two things that meant a great deal to him: the culture and community of the local watering hole and of Bitcoin.
“We had this idea to sort of smash these two things together to help New York City,” he says. “Bridge the gap to the Bitcoin community and sort of help resuscitate and grow the local community here in New York. And as we started to piece this together, and it was one foot in front of the other, we realized that we were really on to something.”
Trump’s visit takes PubKey national
PubKey was thrown into the national spotlight in September 2024 when then-presidential hopeful Donald Trump made a campaign stop at the establishment. He ordered 50 burgers and 50 Diet Cokes, paying for the food and drinks with Bitcoin on the Lightning Network.
The transaction was the first known instance of an American president, current or former, using Bitcoin. Not everyone was thrilled that PubKey hosted Trump, and the bar was review-bombed after the story went viral. Both Google Maps and Yelp had to temporarily disable new reviews.
But Pacchia says the experience was actually overwhelmingly positive. “We had people…
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