Renato Moicano on Bitcoin, Fighting, and Money’s Harsh Truths

• Renato Moicano’s Rising Star and Economic Commentary
• Renato Moicano on Bitcoin and "Proof of Work"
• Sound Money Moicano on the Pursuit of Truth and Personal Challenge

When Renato Moicano steps up to the mic in the Octagon, you listen not just because you’ve witnessed him beat a man halfway to death but because whatever comes next is guaranteed to be unfiltered, unpredictable, and, so far, always on the money.

Ranked among the UFC’s top lightweight fighters, “Money” Moicano brings the same fearless, no-holds-barred mentality to both fighting and finance, weaving sharp commentary on money, government, and personal freedom into his post-fight interviews.

Just three days after his recent title fight, Moicano sat down with CoinCentral’s Alex Moskov to dive deeper into the man behind the fighter, the Austrian economics and Bitcoin advocate, and the tri-lingual host of the Show Me the Money podcast. 

Renato Moicano’s Rising Star and Economic Commentary

Many UFC fighters have had hot streaks, but not many are like Renato Moicano. Fresh off finishing Jalin Turner as a +200 underdog, Moicano’s MMA-gloved hands seized the mic, using Joe Rogan’s extended arm as a microphone stand. 

Adrenaline flowing, the Brazilian-born Moicano launched into a full-throttle tirade, weaving pro-America advocacy of personal freedom, fiscal responsibility, and Ludwig von Mises’ six lessons of Austrian economics into a sermon for 20,000 roaring fans.

 “

And let me tell you something, if you care about your own f***ing country, Ludwig von Mises and the six lessons of the Austrian economic school, motherf***ers.”

These lessons—drawn from a series of Mises’ lectures in Argentina in 1959—champion free markets, warn of inflation’s destructive grip, and argue against the creeping hand of socialism, all while underscoring the perils of government meddling in the economy.

If anyone thought Moicano’s post-fight monologues were a one-off, they were sorely mistaken. 

His performance and the viral reception earned him a headline spot on UFC Fight Night in Paris on September 28, 2024, against the tough Benoit St. Denis. 

St. Denis, a former French Army Special Forces operative, looked at the lightweight division as just another battlefield. Moicano, again a +200 underdog against the home-crowd favorite, systematically dismantled St. Denis in the first round, forcing a doctor’s stoppage after the first round. 

Then came the mic. 

Rather than bask in victory or play the villain role that often comes with spoiling a hometown hero’s night, Moicano turned his sights on Macron, the French government, and global political agendas.

“People in France don’t suck, but the government is f*cking horrendous!” 

Audience boos turned into cheers after the translator relayed his comments. 

Moicano doubled down. 

“F*ck Macron, f*ck all globalilists, they’re trying to push a political and corrupt agenda!” 

He also assigned some homework: Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Democracy: The God That Failed, a book that explores voter behavior, policy-making, and institutional reforms, and how global changes, inequality, and technological advancements have forced democratic evolution in recent years.

Renato left to roaring applause. The man knows how to cut a promo, but showmanship aside, Money Moicano is a level-headed first-principles thinker regarding his money. 

He’s also completely self-taught. He began teaching himself English at 29 and is entirely self-directed in his knowledge of economics and cryptography. 

“When I moved to the USA in 2018, Trump was in office, and in Brazil we had Bolsonaro,” says Moicano. “Everybody was talking about how democracy was in danger because of these ‘populist’ leaders. So I asked myself, ‘What is democracy?’ I knew you go vote, but what does it really mean? I started reading about the Roman Empire, about Greece, how political systems were created.”

Watching global reactions to Trump and Bolsonaro’s rise was his political awakening—not in the tribal, surface-level way most people experience politics, but in a way that led him down the rabbit hole of governance, money, and ultimately, decentralized finance and Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin, which famously has no politics because it’s pure programming and math, often requires a deeper political understanding to realize its utility.

“In 2021, everybody in the gym was talking about Bitcoin,” says Moicano. “I’d already been investing in stocks, so I bought some Bitcoin. Then it went up, then it crashed, and I started to worry, but I didn’t sell. That’s when I read Bitcoin Red Pill, and it talked about Austrian economics. After that, I started reading all these books about the moral and philosophical side of Bitcoin, and everything made sense.”

His conviction deepened in the 2022 bear market. While others panic-sold, he kept learning and connecting big-picture economic themes like inflation, government overreach, moral hazard to personal freedom, and the reality of his own lived experience. 

“I also bought some crypto games– I lost a lot of money on these fucking NFTs in crypto games,” Moicano adds. 

Been there.

Moicano’s journey mirrors that of many of Bitcoin’s most die-hard supporters—not just those who read about inflation, government overreach, and systemic manipulation, but those who’ve felt its impact firsthand. The early Bitcoin movement was born from the wreckage of the 2008 financial crisis, a direct response to reckless monetary policy, bailouts for the powerful, and the slow siphoning of wealth from the many to the few. 

Like many Bitcoiners, for Moicano, Bitcoin is a form of self-defense and a safeguard against a rigged system. 

His post-fight interview coverage runs the gauntlet– belts, bonuses, gratitudes, callouts, financial literacy, and democracy, and has attracted a loyal fan base that goes beyond his Octagon performance. 

His performance in Paris earned him a spot on the UFC 311 card on January 18, 2025. Initially set to face a different opponent—one he’d spent an entire training camp preparing for—fate had other plans. A whirlwind series of events led to Moicano being asked, last minute, to step in for a shot at the UFC Lightweight Championship.

The fight didn’t go his way, but Moicano left the cage with minimal damage to both body and spirit, using his post-fight mic time to give the champion Islam Makhachev the credit he deserved.

Moicano revealed he had something else in mind for that moment on Twitter. 

I wish I had won yesterday, grabbed the microphone, and told you to read Murray Rothbard’s What Has Government Done to Our Money! Why money should be a commodity with a floating price dictated by the free market! Why central banks are institutions that, instead of helping the…

— Renato Moicano (@moicanoufc) January 19, 2025

So, we sat down for an interview to discuss. 

Renato Moicano on Bitcoin and “Proof of Work”

Fighting and philosophy share roots stretching back millennia. To the ancients, a true philosopher was no mere armchair theorist. Plato, whose nickname means “broad-shouldered,” wrestled. Socrates and Marcus Aurelius championed physical training as a key to mental clarity and moral virtue.

They believed moral and intellectual insight required discipline honed in the mind and body. This dual commitment to wisdom and justice once defined the archetype of the “philosopher king,” a ruler who wielded thought and action with equal mastery.

Yet over the centuries, that vision has faded in favor of more disembodied, specialized academic pursuits. 

With all due respect to many of the brilliant minds of recent history, today’s thinkers are mostly behind lecterns or on digital platforms, rarely stepping into spaces that test their physical resolve. As a result, they miss out on the invaluable feedback loop that comes from direct physical engagement with the real world—the kind that sharpens intellect and instinct. 

Echo chambers of “experts” without skin in the game or real-world experience have exercised a grip on communications channels, each biased in one political direction or the other. 

That’s not to suggest the world’s problems would be solved if economics just began deadlifting, like The Black Swan and Antifragile mathematician writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb, or if captains of industry began training jiujitsu, like Mark Zuckerberg. 

But there’s something to be said for clarity, resilience, real-world adaptability, and critical refinement of effort forged in both the gym and the arena.

“Most people live in an abstract mindset where everything’s relative, but get out there and train,” says Moicano. “Do something that reminds you that you’re human. Do something meaningful with your life—and if you can make money, buy Bitcoin, study Bitcoin, and let people know you’re doing it.”

While modern thought has produced staggering advancements, cracks emerge where theory collides with reality– take our impossibly complex economy, labyrinthine monetary policies that even their stewards cannot fully understand, and the perennial question of what it truly means to govern justly. 

The tides, however, seem to be shifting. Joe Rogan, Lex Fridman, and Jocko Willink—whose combined audiences reach hundreds of millions each month—are all black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as is Renato Moicano. Eddie Bravo, another black belt and frequent Rogan guest, pioneered 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu and is widely credited with popularizing a new wave of grappling in America– we’ll explore this point later on. 

“I’m a huge fan of guys like Joe Rogan, Lex Fridman, and podcasting because you can have really long conversations and explain your point in a long format. That was how I learned English, too, because when I got in the USA, I didn’t speak English at all. I was watching podcasts and tried to figure out what they were saying. So, maybe I was influenced by that, you know, but I think the pursuit of truth is the most important thing in life.” 

None of them claim to have all the answers. Their podcasts are less about definitive conclusions and more about pursuing truth, wherever it may lead, regardless of what feathers it may ruffle. 

Moicano and I discussed the unique place fighting has in thought and the insights that emerge where intellect and action collide. 

“Martial arts, like Bitcoin, is proof of work,” says Moicano. “You have to test yourself. You have to train, show up, and compete; nothing is guaranteed. Not only martial arts, but every sport. If you want to be a champion, you have to compete. To compete, you have to train. It’s not guaranteed. Only the best gets the prize. You know, you’re going to try against other machines per-se, right? It’s like mining– whoever is the best, faster, will get the prize. It’s a lot like the Bitcoin network.” 

For Moicano, proof of work is a way of life, not just a consensus mechanism. His comparison between Bitcoin’s mining process and the demands of real-world competition offers a fascinating parallel for crypto enthusiasts.

Bitcoin’s proof-of-work system has long been criticized within the cryptocurrency space for its speed, lack of interoperability, and inability to be “smart” like Ethereum’s smart-contract-friendly network. 

Yet, it remains the undisputed champion for a reason. Winning, as it turns out, is incredibly energy-intensive, and there’s no way around it– at least not an indefinite way.

While other blockchains rely on proof-of-stake and models entangled in inflationary emissions, governance complexities, and buyback incentives, Bitcoin is brutally simple: machines compete, the first to solve the problem wins, and the fastest and most efficient are rewarded. 

Today, this race isn’t just between individual miners but entire industrial-scale mining farms, all vying for the block reward—currently 3.125 BTC, or roughly $325,000.

Sound Money Moicano on the Pursuit of Truth and Personal Challenge

Moicano’s pro-Bitcoin and financial literacy commentary is something of an anomaly in the entertainment world, where celebrities, fighters, and now politicians, will use moments of fame and attention to peddle shitcoins. 

After spending time with Moicano, it’s clear that’s not his game. There’s no Money Moicano Solana memecoin, no Show Me the Money NFT collection—at least, not any officially affiliated with him that we know of. 

“People ask me, ‘Moicano, when should I buy Bitcoin?’ And I always tell them, ‘Don’t buy if you don’t want to study.’ Because if you buy just because the price is going up, you’ll sell when it goes down. You have to do the work.”

There’s a shared ethos of no shortcuts, no illusions.

“If you try to follow the truth and you’re true to yourself, you’re going to get to good places in life because only the truth can set you free,” says Moicano. “I think Bitcoin is like the truth economically– the truth of money.”

His choice of words—“only the truth can set you free”—underscores a moral dimension to holding sound money, further highlighting the integration of his learned experiences into a personal heuristic. 

Moicano, it turns out, is what the cryptocurrency world calls a Bitcoin maximalist. 

In crypto circles, that’s a line-in-the-sand declaration: Bitcoin is king, and everything else is just a distraction, a scam, or an elaborate Ponzi scheme with no fundamentals.

No proof of work! No mining ! Billions of tokens! Totally centralized! A company literally have all the supply! Hijack the blockchain technology to use for banks and legacy system! The last thing that I would care about bitcoin is the price!! https://t.co/6maIHfQPbw

— Renato Moicano (@moicanoufc) January 24, 2025

When it comes to his money, he’s a first-principles thinker, demanding the same clarity and excellence in performance that is demanded of him in mastering his craft. 

Shifting gears, the rise of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the U.S. has swept up a surprising demographic: startup founders, tech workers, and brain-heavy professionals who spend their days behind laptops and their evenings fighting for underhooks. 

It’s a sight to behold—120-pound purple belt developers effortlessly choking out 215-pound muscle-bound cop white belts, leveraged technique humbling brute strength in real-time.

The sport has exploded in popularity, with Google search trends peaking in 2023. 

Unlike boxing or Muay Thai, BJJ doesn’t require you to eat punches for breakfast—making it a natural draw for those who rely on their brains as much as their bodies. Famously, Mark Zuckerberg joined the fold, recruiting many of the world’s best grapplers and fighters for one-on-ones. 

But there’s another, more elusive thread running through BJJ’s rise—one that connects unlikely groups like crypto diehards, startup founders, and martial artists to a broader shift in how people engage with reality, risk, and politics.

The throughline isn’t immediately obvious, but Moicano’s journey offers some clues.

Fighting forces you to face reality in a way few other pursuits do. There’s no faking it on the mats. Mistakes have immediate consequences—you either adapt or you tap. This kind of visceral, real-time feedback rewires how you think, cutting through abstraction and exposing uncomfortable truths. 

It’s the exact opposite of modern politics, where bad policies don’t always have clear, immediate repercussions—until they do. 

Your generation might not even feel the effects, creating an intergenerational debt-fueled relay race. Every generation passes the burden to the next, hoping they won’t be the one collapsing at the finish line—assuming there’s even a next generation to pass the burden to, given plummeting birth rates and the growing trend of opting out of parenthood altogether. 

“Once you see the financial system is messed up, once you see democracy can be a fallacy, you can’t unsee it. People want free stuff, and the government wants to be elected, so they promise free stuff. That drives inflation, taxation, and more control. The state always wants to grow, so we’re not safe. We have to secure our assets in a hard, sound money that can’t be inflated or seized.”

And you don’t need a math PhD to see where this is headed: a society with longer life expectancy and fewer young people to support an aging population is an economic time bomb. 

Government programs that support the social safety net rely on the next generation to pay the bills. However, as national debt skyrockets and interest payments eat away at budgets, those programs look increasingly fragile.

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So what’s the way out? Either a society that’s already sprinting just to stay afloat has to become somehow even more productive, boosting GDP at an unprecedented rate… or something fundamental has to change.

Moicano emerged as an outspoken critic of modern economic policies, particularly the inflationary spiral eroding the middle class. 

“I’m 35 years old, I’ve been working since I am 11,” says Moicano. “I just lose money all the time to inflation. If you have the right mentality, if you don’t gamble, if you don’t drink, if you don’t spend money on parties, if you do everything right, and you keep your money on the bank, you’re still losing, you’re still losing in life, the government is still robbing you. And I got sick fo that. I don’t want the government stealing my money through taxation and inflation. I don’t want a government taking my money and putting it into stuff that I don’t believe in.” 

He warns that unchecked money printing isn’t just bad policy; it’s a wrecking ball for economic stability, widening the wealth gap and consolidating power in the hands of a few.

“I can become UFC champion. And if I don’t invest my money, if I don’t know money, I’m going to lose to inflation, so what’s even the point of working? And if you live in a society that doesn’t see value in storing money, we’ll become a bunch of lazy motherfuckers that don’t want to work. That’s why I keep trying understand and self educate myself, because I don’t want to lose. I have a family. I want to understand how the, how the world works. I’m always on the pursuit of the truth, beauty, and morality. I believe in right and wrong, and I always want to do right.” 

His frustration with government overreach, national debt, and inflation mirrors the sentiments of libertarians, Austrian economists, and Bitcoiners alike. 

“It’s going to get worse for the middle class. The super-rich don’t pay taxes; the poor people don’t pay. So the government wants the middle class to foot the bill for everything. They want people poor so those people vote for more handouts, keeping politicians in power.”

He sees inflation and reckless spending as a form of generational theft—one that hits young and working-class families the hardest, often before they even realize what’s happening. 

Moicano draws a direct line between centralized power and its true lifeblood: a populace that feels powerless and is conditioned to believe that their only option is to beg for more state intervention. 

It’s a cycle straight out of the political playbook—one that both leftists and rightists wield masterfully, keeping citizens dependent while consolidating control.

“Why does the government get to enslave the next generation with debt? That’s why young people can’t afford homes—prices are going crazy. And politicians love it because they give handouts to get votes. That’s not capitalism; that’s interventionism. The state always wants to overreach.”

This message naturally resonates with Bitcoin advocates worldwide, but Moicano’s fighting talents have helped it reach an audience that might know Bitcoin by name but not by ideology. For Moicano, financial self-defense is just as critical as physical self-defense.

“Bitcoin has no top because fiat currency has no bottom,” Moicano declares. “The system is broken. The only ‘solution’ governments have is to print more money. Eventually, people will realize bonds aren’t that good, fiat isn’t that stable. America today is still okay, but 10, 20 years from now, it could be like Brazil—a tiny group of super-rich and a massive class of super-poor.”

Inflation, government overreach, reckless debt policies—these all operate in the background, dull and theoretical, until suddenly, a loaf of bread costs ten bucks, and no one can afford rent, let alone a home.

Moicano’s story shows how physical mastery often parallel intellectual courage. He didn’t arrive at Austrian economics and Bitcoin through a finance degree—he fought his way there, quite literally, accumulating Bitcoin with money earned fighting.

In his mind, the defense doesn’t stop at protecting your body; it extends to defending your financial future and recognizing when the system is rigged against you.