Sovereignty Summit 2027
Two epic days of Bitcoin on a mountain in Queenstown
Put 2–3 April 2027 in your calendar. The Sovereignty Summit is a two-day Bitcoin conference at Coronet Peak, high above Queenstown, with the Wakatipu Basin and the Remarkables as the backdrop.
The headline acts are Jeff Booth, author of The Price of Tomorrow and General Partner at Ego Death Capital, and Efrat Fenigson, the independent journalist behind You're The Voice. Around them is a lineup of more than 25 speakers from across the Bitcoin world and the Kiwi scene.
If you've been to a Bitkiwi meetup or a Queenstown Bitcoin night and wondered what the next step up looks like, this is it. And before you assume a two-day conference with a lineup like that is out of reach, look at the price.
What it costs, and what it doesn't
A Signal Pass, which gets you both days of main-stage talks and panels, is US$394 if you pay in fiat or US$375 if you pay in bitcoin. At around NZ$1.72 to the US dollar that's roughly NZ$680, or NZ$645 in sats, for two days. The Sovereign Pass, with every workshop, coach transfers, the gondola, refreshments and the Welcome Party thrown in, is US$710 in fiat or US$675 in bitcoin, so about NZ$1,220 or NZ$1,160.
That is cheap by the standards of what professionals in New Zealand pay to spend a day or two in a conference room. The table below is the standard, full-conference price for a few recent and upcoming NZ events across different industries, as listed on their own sites.
| Event | Sector | Standard full price (NZD) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Summit 2027, Signal Pass (Queenstown, Apr 2027) | Bitcoin | ~$680 (US$394), ~$645 in BTC | 2 days |
| Data Centre Leaders Summit NZ (Auckland, Aug 2026) | Data centres | $1,795 | 1 day |
| NZ Dental Association Conference 2026 | Dentistry | $1,325 incl. GST (member rate) | |
| National Digital Forum NDF26 | Galleries, libraries, museums | $1,040 incl. GST (non-member) | |
| CIO Innovation Summit 2026 (Auckland, Aug 2026) | Enterprise IT | $2,499 + GST (end-user) | 2 days |
| Multicore World 2027 (Feb 2027) | High-performance computing | $2,450 + GST | 4 days |
On a per-day basis the Signal Pass works out at well under half the price of a single day at the data centre summit, and a fraction of what a CIO pays for two days in an Auckland hotel ballroom. Those events are priced for a company card. The Sovereignty Summit is priced for a person paying their own way, which is rather the point.
The Summit is volunteer-run and nobody takes a profit; the surplus goes back to The Bitcoin Basin to fund Bitcoin education in New Zealand. Pay in bitcoin and you're about 5% better off again. Early-bird pricing is current as we publish, with the standard Signal price going to US$499 later, so the gap only widens if you wait.
Not a Bitcoin conference about Bitcoin
Most Bitcoin conferences are about Bitcoin: the price, the protocol, the latest wallet. The Sovereignty Summit starts from a different question. If sound money is the foundation, what does the life built on top of it look like?
The organisers have broken that down into seven pillars, and the programme is structured around them:
- Technology & Innovation — open-source mining, self-custody hardware, Lightning rails
- Privacy, Property & Freedom
- Health & Wellness
- Food, Farming & Land
- Family & Community
- Education & Connection
- Philosophy, Spirituality & Creativity
So alongside the on-chain analysts and the Lightning builders you'll find a chef, a regenerative farmer, a wellness retreat founder, a gold miner and a therapist-anthropologist. It's a deliberately broad tent. If you've ever found yourself explaining to a sceptical mate that Bitcoin is about more than number-go-up, this is the conference that makes that argument for you.
There's one more reason to care. The Summit is a volunteer-run, community-driven project, and nobody is taking a profit from it. All proceeds go back into The Bitcoin Basin, Queenstown's Bitcoin circular economy, to fund Bitcoin and financial education in New Zealand. Buying a ticket is also a donation to the local scene.
Who's speaking
Jeff Booth opens day one with a keynote on sound money, and his Price of Tomorrow thesis — that technology is deflationary and our monetary system is fighting it — sets the tone for the macro and monetary panels that follow. Efrat Fenigson brings the journalist's lens on freedom, surveillance and the forces shaping the world we're trying to opt out of.
The international names Kiwi Bitcoiners will recognise include:
- Willy Woo, the on-chain analyst
- Daniel Batten, founder of CH4 Capital and the researcher behind much of the Bitcoin mining and methane work
- Ioni Appelberg, Bitcoin philosopher and author
- Nacho Pauls, Chief Commercial Officer at OCEAN mining pool
- Roland Bewick, builder at Alby
- Pete Evans, chef and author
And there's a strong home-grown contingent: Hank Harris from The Bitcoin Shop, Ketan from Ministry of Nodes, Piers Cockram of Mineracks, Francisco Colombo who runs education for the Bitcoin Basin, Damien Chaparro of Aro Hā, and the Stacked team — Brandon Bucher, Robert Clarkson and Simon Collins. The full list is on the speakers page, with more being added.
How the two days run
Day one, Friday 2 April, is The Foundation: the opening keynote, macro and monetary panels, and technology and innovation sessions, with a VIP dinner with the speakers that evening.
Day two, Saturday 3 April, is The Life It Makes Possible: health, food, family and community in the morning; privacy, property and freedom; then philosophy, spirituality and creativity leading into the closing keynote.
The days either side are worth planning for too. Thursday 1 April has pre-registration, a free Bitcoin Runners social run along the Queenstown lakefront at 4pm, and the Welcome Party at QT Hotel from 7pm. Saturday morning opens with a Women's Breakfast, also at QT. A side event is pencilled in for Wednesday 31 March. The full timetable will be published on the programme page as speaker slots firm up.
Spend the week on a Bitcoin standard
We've written before about Queenstown as New Zealand's gateway to the Bitcoin world. The Summit is where that story gets its showcase. The week of the event, dozens of Queenstown businesses will be taking Lightning payments: coffee, dinners, groceries, lift passes, transfers, even bungy jumps. A merchant map will be published closer to the date, and the BTC Map already shows how far the Basin has come.
You can sleep on sats too. Browns Boutique and ORA Fernhill Wellness Retreat both accept bitcoin, and AirBTC lists Bitcoin-only stays in the area. The official home base is QT Hotel on the lakefront, where the Welcome Party and Women's Breakfast are held and where the first coach to Coronet Peak leaves each morning; the organisers have a negotiated rate there and a $560/night group rate at the Millennium with code SOVEREIGNTY27.
Getting up the hill is a 25-minute drive on the Coronet Peak access road. Coaches run from outside QT in staggered windows from 6:45am to 7:30am, and there's plenty of parking if you'd rather self-drive and make a day of it. Early April is autumn: expect highs around 15°C, lows around 5°C, and a chance of the first snow on the tops. Bring layers.
If you want a local to sort the rest, Bitcoin Journey, the Basin's official educator, runs Bitcoin-paid travel experiences around Queenstown and further afield. And for anyone on a VIP pass, there's a partner discount on Aro Hā, the wellness retreat in the mountains north of town, if you want to decompress after two days of talks.
Get involved
If your business wants to be part of it, there are sponsorship packages available. Key partners already on board include Stacked, The Bitcoin Shop, Aro Hā and The Bitcoin Basin.
For speaker announcements and ticket releases, follow the Summit on X, Nostr or Instagram, or subscribe to the newsletter at sovereigntysummit.nz. Questions go to info@sovereigntysummit.nz.
See you on the mountain.