Famous for his candid and laid-back discussions of nearly every topic imaginable, Joe Rogan has said surprisingly little about cryptocurrencies over the years. From his thoughts on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to whether he owns any tokens, most of the details take a little digging to uncover. It’s about time to change that.
Not only does Joe Rogan understand the potential of cryptocurrency as a democratic and powerful alternative to fiat currencies, he’s actually one of the earliest celebrities to buy into this new finance paradigm. At other times, Rogan has questioned the validity and usefulness of cryptocurrency, as well delving into crypto fraud schemes with his guest Coffeezilla.
Given that Rogan called Bitcoin “the king” in a JRE podcast episode, it should come as no surprise that he created his first Bitcoin wallet in 2014 and shared it on Instagram—back when it was trading at a mouth-watering price of under $500 only!
Also see: The Top 11 Ways Joe Rogan Makes Money: A Concise List
Does Joe Rogan Own Crypto?
The short answer is, yes! Rogan created and shared a screenshot of his Bitcoin wallet back in 2014. If nothing else, he must have received some unexpected transfers from his fans (something that’s common whenever a celebrity shares their crypto address).
Check out this tweet from Joe Rogan from back in 2014, sharing his Bitcoin wallet address:
In fact, all doubts are erased when the Spotify deal is factored into the equation. Of the whopping $100 million contract for moving future JRE episodes to Spotify, Rogan is reported to have taken $100,000 as payment in the form of Bitcoin. This was not recommended by Spotify either, as Rogan allegedly requested this personally.
However, Rogan’s love for crypto ends at Bitcoin. When prompted by a guest if he has invested in crypto, he vehemently declared no. It is worth noting the word “invested”, as Joe goes on to explain that he owns “a little bit of Bitcoin”. This indicates that he doesn’t own any crypto other than Bitcoin, and that he may be referring to the amount he got from the Spotify deal along with any random transfers by fans.
In other words, Joe Rogan may never have bought crypto directly, but he’s definitely holding on to some Bitcoin. Also, check out this top-selling book on Amazon:
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall (Amazon)
What does Joe Rogan think of Cryptocurrency Altcoins?
Rogan’s love for Bitcoin is driven by its scarcity, originality, and overall democratic promise of empowering the public by reeling control out of the hands of middlemen, including the government. In that sense, he’s very much a utility-focused investor.
It should come as no surprise then that he has not invested in any other cryptocurrency, as he sees most of them as a poor imitation of Bitcoin with little substance to back them up.
On the other hand, he’s not entirely opposed to the idea of alternative crypto tokens. On an episode with Bas Rutten, he was fascinated by the usage of tokens in Karate Combat. It’s a unique project that lets fans govern the striking league by owning $KARATE tokens and getting voting rights among other benefits. Rogan showered the project with praise, with his love for “the idea of tying a token with an organization” and how the project automatically gives 10 percent of the money to the fighters.
It’s safe to say that while Joe Rogan is skeptical of altcoins and tokens with flimsy foundations, he’s not completed aversive to them, especially if they pack an exciting suite of utilities like Karate Combat.
The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking (Amazon)
Does Joe Rogan like or hate NFTs?
Out of all things that came out of the blockchain revolution, none are more disliked by the public than non-funginble tokens (NFTs). Joe Rogan fully agrees with public sentiment on this asset class, going as far as calling it a “cryptocurrency hustle”.
“NFTs are weird hustle, I think it’s like a cryptocurrency hustle. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
-Joe Rogan
On another occasion, when talking about the ever-popular NFT game Axie Infinity, Rogan was stunned to hear that the game clears millions of dollars in daily trading volume. While his remarks weren’t scathing on this occasion, he concluded by calling it extremely strange and leaving it at that.
On a side note, that didn’t stop the creators of the game from sharing it on Twitter as an endorsement of their creation. One user was quick to respond, “that is an endorsement I would NOT want…”
Best JRE Podcast Episodes on Crypto
1. JRE #844: Andreas Antonopoulos (Bitcoin advocate)
“I’m talking about the greatest experiment in money which started in 2008 and 2009. This great experiment is completely unprecedented in the history of money. I’m not talking about Bitcoin. I’m talking about 22 central banks simultaneously taking their interest rates to zero and pumping the largest amount of money ever created to try and stop an economy from collapsing. That has created the largest bubble in history.”–Andreas Antonopoulos
“I’m all in, I’m on team Bitcoin.”– Joe Rogan
2. JRE #1951: Coffeezilla (Fraud Investigator)
“First of all, it’s this guy who drives a Toyota, so you go like, ‘well, why does he need to scam me if he’s driving a Toyota?’ Then it’s like, ‘okay, Tom Brady backs him, Tom Brady’s got to have some guys who are looking into this…” – Coffeezilla
3. JRE #2044: Sam Altman (Chat GPT Founder)
“The real fascinating crypto is bitcoin, to me, that’s the one that I think has the most likely possibility of becoming a universal viable currency. It’s limited in the amount that there can be, people mine it … that to me is very fascinating, and I love the fact that it’s been implemented.”–Joe Rogan
Also see where Altman lands on this list (it’s really high): Top 10 Lex Fridman Podcast Episodes on AI – Ranked
4. JRE #1921: Peter Zeihan (Geopolitics)
“The craziest thing about Bitcoin is that there will never be more than X number of units of Bitcoin. By default, it means it can’t be used for trade… [the] whole whole idea of economic activity is that there’s expansion, which means you need more currency to lubricate and manage that expansion.”–Peter Zeihan
Check out Zeihan’s best-selling book, available on Amazon:
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization (Amazon)
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