The writings of Ludwig von Mises—the famed Austrian economist of the early 20th century and hero to the Bitcoin faithful—are surging in popularity following an endorsement from a popular MMA fighter.
Renato "Money" Moicano became a top-ten UFC lightweight this weekend after his comeback win at UFC 300. Rather than call out his next opponent, the Brazilian fighter used his post-fight interview to urge the crowd to read Mises’s books.
“If you care about your fucking country, read Ludwig von Mises and the Six Lessons of the Austrian Economic School, motherfuckers,” Moicano told the crowd. Aggressive. But it apparently struck a chord.
Renato “Money” Moicano uses his post fight speech to shout out the 1st Amendment & Ludwig von Mises #UFC300 pic.twitter.com/NlgHcV8Z1J
— An0maly (@LegendaryEnergy) April 14, 2024
Since the fight, at least 26,000 copies of “The Six Lessons” have been downloaded as a free PDF from Amazon. Several other Mises books are also top rankers in the site’s economics section. There have also been anecdotal accounts on Twitter from Moicano fans who say Mises's book has been sold out at their local bookstores.
The Austrian School of Economics advocates for a laissez-faire approach to the economy, free markets, individualism, and a fixed money supply. Many modern proponents of Mises and the Austrian school of thought, such as economist and media personality Peter Schiff, are fans of gold and advocate for a return to the gold standard for the U.S. dollar. Others, unlike Schiff, are also fans of Bitcoin, since the digital currency has a fixed supply, can be freely owned by anyone, and is not managed by a central bank.
After the fight, Moicano asked to receive his $300,000 fight-finishing bonus in BTC.
“I love Bitcoin, I love decentralization,” Moicano said in an interview on Ariel Helwani's "The MMA Hour" on Monday. Since learning about Austrian economics and Bitcoin, Moicano no longer keeps his money in the bank, he said, because the fiat currency in his account loses value to inflation over time.
“It's not an investment… it could go up and down every time,” he explained. “But it's better than trusting a money that is backed by politicians and promises. If you don’t have money to buy Bitcoin, try to learn about money and Bitcoin.”
Moicano on Monday campaigned for guest spot on the “Show Me The Money” podcast, hosted by "The Bitcoin Standard" author and Austrian economist Saifedean Ammous. The podcast host and author replied, "With pleasure!"
A day prior, former professor of psychology turned media personality Jordan Peterson—who has himself hosted Saifedean on his own podcast—called Moicano’s post-fight speech “unspeakably great.”
“The deadly boxers have become profound economic philosophers,” he tweeted at the time.