Passato e futuro del Bitcoin, l'intervista a Giacomo Zucco - Codice 17/08/2026

Summary

Giacomo Zucco argues that Bitcoin’s price is shaped by both macroeconomic and geopolitical events and its own recurring market cycles. In his view, demand remains relatively shallow and prone to enthusiasm-driven rises and sharp corrections. He describes a move from just over $15,000 to $126,000 per BTC, followed by a decline to around $70,000, as a largely physiological correction. He cautions against explaining Bitcoin’s price solely through external events.

Bitcoin as an Asset and Potential Store of Value

Zucco says Bitcoin is still at an early stage in the historical progression of money: from collectible, to long-term savings asset or store of value, and eventually to medium of exchange and unit of account. He believes its current priority is to establish itself as a store of value and compete with gold, stocks, and bonds before everyday payments become widespread.

He assesses a store of value against three risks:

• Demand shock: Bitcoin is vulnerable because it is relatively new and lacks gold’s millennia-long history of demand.
• Supply shock: Bitcoin is comparatively resilient because its supply is predetermined.
• Confiscation or portability risk: He considers Bitcoin unusually portable; a recovery phrase of 12 words can allow access to savings across borders without physical assets or banking documents.

Zucco argues that using Bitcoin as a store of value could encourage its use for payments: people who hold savings in Bitcoin may prefer to spend it directly rather than convert it into fiat currency first. He says Bitcoin payments are most compelling online, where cash is unavailable and card payments can expose personal information. In his view, cash remains strong competition for in-person transactions.

Adoption, Payments, and El Salvador

Lugano

Zucco says around 400 businesses in Lugano accept Bitcoin. He describes an 11-day experiment in which his wife lived only on Bitcoin in the city, and says he has bought a car and regularly pays for meals with it. Public transport was not yet payable in Bitcoin, and some purchases required intermediaries or vouchers.

El Salvador

Zucco says Bitcoin use remains limited nationally, despite acceptance in some locations, including Bitcoin Beach (El Zonte) and selected communities and businesses. He argues that remittances were an important use case and that traditional providers such as Western Union and MoneyGram cut fees by nearly half in response to competition.

He characterizes the changes associated with the IMF agreement as largely formal rather than a major reversal:

• Merchant acceptance of Bitcoin became explicitly optional.
• Investment in Bitcoin infrastructure was to be private rather than government-owned.
• Government purchases using treasury funds were to end by the end of 2025.

Zucco argues that the government’s earlier plan to buy one BTC per day would have ended as funds ran out anyway. In his account, the IMF agreement brought several billion dollars in financing while also weakening the political narrative of Bitcoin adoption.

He says Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador is higher than in 2021, but increasingly driven from the bottom up rather than by government promotion. He also mentions Ecuador and Panama as dollarized countries that could observe the experiment.

Tokenization and Financial Infrastructure

Zucco is skeptical of many real-world-asset tokenization projects because rights such as dividends, voting, rental income, or access to property still depend on a centralized entity. He questions the benefit of using Bitcoin’s decentralized infrastructure when a central authority remains necessary. He also notes that regulatory requirements such as KYC/AML and qualified-investor restrictions can conflict with open, permissionless systems.

He sees possible longer-term benefits if Bitcoin becomes widely used infrastructure: the same network and user familiarity might then support trading tokenized shares or other assets. He also suggests tokenization may currently help expand access to financial services in underserved markets, although he views regulatory-arbitrage uses as temporary and vulnerable to future enforcement.

Examples discussed include:

• Dollar tokens and stablecoins: Zucco calls tokenized dollars the most successful tokenization use case to date.
• Gold: He discusses attempts to represent physical gold digitally and recalls the online gold service e-gold, which he says was shut down by U.S. authorities in 2008.
• RGB: Zucco says he helped develop the Bitcoin tokenization protocol RGB, while remaining skeptical about the broader tokenization trend.

Scaling, Layer 2, and AI Payments

Zucco says Bitcoin’s Layer 1 offers security and decentralization but has scalability and privacy limitations because transactions are recorded on the blockchain and replicated by network nodes. He says Layer 2 systems are needed for everyday transactions, with Layer 1 serving principally as a settlement and security foundation. He makes a similar criticism of general-purpose smart-contract platforms such as Ethereum, where computation is replicated across validating nodes.

He identifies Ark (ARC) as a new Layer 2 development that could make Bitcoin easier to use without requiring users to manage the technical complexity and liquidity arrangements associated with the Lightning Network. He says Ark is in production but still developing, and argues it could enable simpler small payments and commercial escrow. He also mentions Spark and RGB as Bitcoin-related projects.

Zucco cites a report claiming that as much as 40% of payments between AI agents on social platforms use Bitcoin via the Lightning Network. He sees potential in Bitcoin for automated payments, especially where privacy matters, but is skeptical of broad near-term adoption because Bitcoin’s price volatility makes accounting and supplier payments difficult.

Markets, Assets, and Organizations Mentioned

• Assets and instruments: Bitcoin (BTC), gold, U.S. dollars and dollar tokens/stablecoins, stocks and bonds, Apple shares, fiat currencies, Bitcoin Layer 1 and Layer 2, Lightning Network, Ark/ARC, Spark, RGB, and Ethereum.
• Companies and organizations: Tether/USDT, Bitfinex, Fulgur Ventures, the Plan ₿ Foundation/Plan ₿ project, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Western Union, MoneyGram, and PayPal.
• Themes and sectors: Cryptocurrency, payments and remittances, tokenization and digital assets, financial inclusion, Bitcoin infrastructure, and AI-agent payments.

Disclosures and Cautions

Zucco says his comments on tokenization are his personal views and that he does not represent a company in making them. He expresses skepticism about tokenization projects and cautions that Bitcoin’s volatility can hinder its use as a short-term currency and complicate business accounting. No explicit “not financial advice” disclaimer appears in the subtitles.

Presenters and Sources

• Giacomo Zucco: Interviewee; Bitcoin and blockchain specialist, as introduced in the program.
• Interviewer: Not identified in the subtitles.
• Source: Rai, Codice.