G7 emergency summit deadlocks on how to respond to Bitcoin oil settlement

G7 leaders held an emergency session in Rome on the proliferation of Bitcoin-settled oil trade and emerged with no joint statement. The U.S. pushed for a coordinated ban on BTC-denominated energy transactions. France and Germany proposed regulating rather than prohibiting. Japan — whose refiners are now settling some cargoes in Bitcoin — abstained. The fundamental disagreement is whether Bitcoin is a threat to sanctions enforcement or an unavoidable feature of the new settlement landscape. The communique was reportedly drafted, redrafted, and scrapped. When the seven largest Western economies cannot agree on whether a technology exists or should be banned, the technology has already won the argument.