Famous podcaster Joe Rogan has held onto his Bitcoin (BTC) stash without selling any, as revealed by on-chain data dating back nearly a decade.
Back in 2014, the mixed martial arts (MMA) commentator shared a QR code version of his public Bitcoin address over social media. Revisiting that same address using mempool.space shows that Rogan has received 468 transactions between 2014 and 2022, and hasn’t spent a single satoshi.
Joe Rogan’s Bitcoin Stash
The finding could mean one of two things—Rogan could either be steadfastly holding his Bitcoin or, less fortunately, might have lost the private key necessary to access his Bitcoin wallet.
Joe’s got 5 coins sitting in an address that was never spent from after a decade. How much you wanna bet he lost the key?https://t.co/JdilMGpTFI pic.twitter.com/nMux3XpAGq
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) February 6, 2024
The latter scenario would be neither serious nor surprising. Crypto wallet technology was still in its infancy at the time, with Trezor only launching the very first hardware wallet in July 2014.
Bitcoin also wasn’t as valuable back then, trading for roughly $829 per coin when Rogan received his first transaction, before declining substantially throughout the year. He accumulated the vast majority of his coins during this time, totaling 5.24 BTC altogether, worth $226,295 at today’s prices.
While representing a major increase from the initial value, this amount is relatively modest in the context of Rogan’s recent business dealings, who just signed another multiyear deal with Spotify for $250 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. The new deal will reportedly allow him to host The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) on other streaming platforms like YouTube and Apple Podcasts and include a revenue-sharing agreement based on ad sales.
When Will Bitcoin Reach JRE?
Rogan has hosted several Bitcoin-focused podcast episodes with crypto educator and author Andreas Antonopolous, but hasn’t done a deep dive on the subject since 2016. He has, however, mentioned it several times in passing, and provided platforms for various guests to air their views on crypto.
During a January 2022 podcast, Rogan expressed optimism about the future of cryptocurrencies, saying, “I have a lot of hope for cryptocurrencies, I really do.”
“I don’t know much about them, but Bitcoin and Ethereum seem to be the ones people talk the most,” he added.
In May of that year, the podcaster suggested that the U.S. government likely fears Bitcoin, since it likely didn’t expect a decentralized currency to gain as much traction as it has. Later on, he claimed to have been paid $100,000 in BTC for a comedy show.
When it comes to NFTs, however, Rogan is hardly a fan. “I can have that photo, and I can have it on my phone,” he said in June 2022.