How Wyoming become the unlikely Bitcoin capital of America

Earlier this year, US Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, a 66-year-old who was born on a cattle ranch, temporarily changed her Twitter avatar to feature glowing red laser eyes in honour of Bitcoin. The gesture was a nod to the insular world of cryptocurrency, where many of the faithful have vowed to swap their pictures until the price of Bitcoin hits $100,000, in a meme known as #LaserRayUntil100K. It’s the latest, slightly bizarre marker of Wyoming’s unlikely ascendance in recent years into a cryptocurrency hub, far from the buzzing fintech centres of New York and San Francisco.

Wyoming has always been a little different from the rest of the US. It was the first state to grant female suffrage, and its contemporary politics are deeply libertarian. It is home to some of the world’s most spectacular public lands like Yellowstone National Park, and it is also the nation’s top coal producer. Its nickname is the Equality State, and its high proportion of ultra-wealthy landowners and tourists have made the city of Jackson Hole the single most unequal place in the country.