Dan Held is a Bitcoin educator, entrepreneur, and marketer who has held senior roles at several Bitcoin-era companies — including co-founding ZeroBlock (Bitcoin price app acquired by Blockchain.info in 2013), ChangeTip (Bitcoin tipping service), and serving as SVP of Marketing at Kraken exchange — and is well-known in Bitcoin circles for clear, accessible writing defending Bitcoin through historical, economic, and technical arguments, including influential pieces on Bitcoin’s genesis, Satoshi Nakamoto’s choices, and the energy use debate; he runs “The Held Report” newsletter and podcast.
Background
Dan Held grew up in California and studied finance and economics. He entered the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2012, becoming one of the earlier participants in what was then a very small community. His career has been defined by working at critical early Bitcoin infrastructure projects.
Career History
ZeroBlock:
Held co-founded ZeroBlock — one of the earliest Bitcoin price and news apps — which was acquired by Blockchain.com (then Blockchain.info) in late 2013 in one of the early Bitcoin startup acquisitions. Post-acquisition, he worked at Blockchain.com.
ChangeTip:
He was part of the team at ChangeTip, a Bitcoin microtipping service that allowed social media users to tip each other in Bitcoin. ChangeTip was eventually acquired by Airbnb in 2016, though primarily for engineering talent.
Uber:
Held worked in product management at Uber, giving him exposure to hyper-growth consumer application scaling.
Kraken:
Held served as Director of Business Development and later SVP of Marketing at Kraken, one of the oldest and most regulated U.S. crypto exchanges. He left Kraken in 2022.
The Held Report:
After Kraken, Held launched The Held Report — a newsletter and podcast focused on Bitcoin monetary theory, macroeconomics, and Bitcoin market cycles. He positions Bitcoin as the answer to institutional monetary debasement and argues for long-term holding over trading.
Key Essays and Arguments
“Planting Bitcoin” (series, 2019):
Multi-part essay series arguing that Satoshi Nakamoto’s design of a proof-of-work monetary system with a fixed supply was not an accident but a deliberate, sophisticated solution to the problem of creating a trustless, decentralized money. The series evaluates Satoshi’s design choices in the context of monetary history and Austrian economics.
Bitcoin Energy Arguments:
Held has written multiple pieces arguing that Bitcoin’s energy consumption is productive (it performs a cryptographic proof-of-work function essential to security) and comparable to industries society accepts as worthwhile (gold mining, the military, Christmas lights). He argues that comparing kWh alone without considering the security and censorship resistance provided is a category error.
Stock-to-Flow and Halving Cycles:
Held has been an active communicator of Bitcoin’s four-year halving cycle thesis as a framework for understanding Bitcoin price dynamics and long-term adoption.
Key Dates
- 2012 — Enters Bitcoin ecosystem.
- 2013 — Co-founds ZeroBlock; acquired by Blockchain.com.
- 2014–2016 — ChangeTip; Uber.
- 2018 — Joins Kraken as Business Development Director.
- 2019 — “Planting Bitcoin” essay series published.
- 2022 — Leaves Kraken; launches The Held Report.
Last updated: 2026-04