We're Heading to the Biggest Institutional Crypto Conference in America. Here's What We're Going to Find Out for You.

Tomorrow, Jarod and I land in New York for DAS2026. We're not going as believers. We're going as fiduciaries.

Starting Tuesday, Jarod and I will be on the floor of Javits Center North in New York City for DAS2026 — Blockworks' Digital Asset Summit. It runs three days. It draws institutional investors, family offices, hedge funds, banks, regulators, and the senior executives shaping the future of digital assets in the United States. The SEC Chairman is keynoting Day 1.

This is not a retail crypto conference. There are no laser-eye avatars and no one is screaming about price targets. It is where the serious institutional money — the people managing billions of dollars in pensions, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds — comes to decide what to do with digital assets. And what they decide eventually filters down to every financial advisor in America and, by extension, to you.

So we're going to go find out what they've decided.

Why This Matters to You

If you're within ten years of retirement, you've almost certainly been approached about Bitcoin. Maybe by a broker. Maybe by a family member. Maybe just by the headlines. And you've probably had the same set of questions that don't have obvious answers:

Is this legitimate, or is it still speculative?

Is this something serious investors actually hold, or just something traders speculate on?

If the answer is yes to the first question — what's the right allocation for someone in my situation?

Those are good questions. They're the same questions I'm going to be asking on the floor of DAS2026 over the next three days. Not as a believer, not as a skeptic. As a fiduciary whose job is to find out the truth and tell it to you straight.

What We're Listening For

A few things I'll be paying particular attention to:

How are family offices and endowments actually sizing digital asset positions — and what's their reasoning?

What does the post-2025 regulatory framework actually mean for retirement accounts? Are Bitcoin ETFs in IRAs and 401(k)s becoming mainstream, or is that still more promise than reality?

What are the smartest people in the room most worried about that the mainstream financial press isn't covering?

And the question I'll be asking in every conversation: what's the honest risk/reward case for a 62-year-old with a $2 million IRA considering a small allocation?

Dispatches Incoming

Starting Wednesday, I'll be sending short posts from the conference floor — brief, direct, intelligence-style updates on what we're hearing and what it means for people in your situation. Not summaries of every panel. Just the signal that matters.

If you're reading this in your email, the ❤️ heart button and the comment section live on the Substack site. Click through when you have a moment — it takes two seconds and it helps The Lighthouse reach more people who need this kind of straight talk. You can also share this post with someone who's been wondering about digital assets and hasn't found a fiduciary voice on the subject yet.

To learn more about how we manage portfolios — with the same disciplined, rules-based approach we'll be applying to any digital asset analysis from this conference — visit us at assetguidancegroup.com/ats-mgmt-landing-page-347034.

Questions before we leave? Reach us at [email protected] or schedule a conversation at assetguidancegroup.com/calendar.

───This post originally appeared on The Lighthouse on Substack — weekly financial analysis written specifically for people within ten years of retirement. Subscribe free at The Lighthouse on Substack or upgrade for weekly Trades of the Week picks.───

Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Digital assets involve additional risks including high volatility and potential total loss of principal.

Wallace R Nichols, MBA, JD, CFP Chief Investment Officer Asset Guidance Group, LLC, a registered investment advisor