UFC champion and Irish presidential hopeful Conor McGregor pushes for Bitcoin strategic reserve

When Bitcoin first launched in 2009, it was seen as something of a novelty. Back in the days you could buy a pizza for 20 Bitcoin, very few saw it as anything but a passing gimmick.

Now, just 16 years later, more than half a dozen governments have Bitcoin reserves, worth billions of dollars, and a single coin sells for US$102,884. Nothing to sniff at.

In recent weeks, five-time MMA champion Conor McGregor has become the somewhat unlikely champion of something else completely – a Bitcoin reserve in Ireland, where he plans to run for president in elections to be held later this year.

Power to the people

While the man himself denies being aligned to the right or left, McGregor these days is viewed by many as something of a far right rabble rouser in Ireland.

Just another celebrity candidate wasting time with next-to-zero chance of victory? Maybe. Although his political aspirations certainly received some high-profile exposure recently after being invited to the White House by President Trump – a “celebrity” politician himself let’s not forget – as part of a St Patrick’s Day visit in 2025.

“Notorious” as McGregor is also known, was also endorsed by Elon Musk, who notoriously touted his support for the German far right party AfD earlier this year. Ex-kickboxer Andrew Tate, who was charged with human trafficking and other offences in Romania, has also stepped into McGregor’s corner.

Interesting company… is one way to put it.

McGregor is making his presidential bid on a platform of anti-immigration with a decidedly anti-EU bent.

He said creating a Bitcoin reserve would give “power back to the people’s money” in an Instagram post, and called on experts – including one of Trump’s crypto advisors, David Bailey, to get in touch and discuss ideas.

Unlike McGregor’s turn in the 2024 film Roadhouse, the idea of a Bitcoin reserve isn’t completely ridiculous. The US, China, the UK, Ukraine, Bhutan, El Salvador and Finland all hold reserves of this nature, some of them far more sizeable than others – the US now holds more than 200,000 BTC, worth more than $21 billion at current prices.

So that particular proposal is not without credibility, but it’s McGregor’s own chances of even running for the presidential election that are dubious to say the least.

“Completely unsuitable”

While running for president in the US is a fairly straightforward endeavour – if you have the cash – it’s a little more complicated in Ireland.

For one, you must be nominated by at least 20 members of the Irish parliament (the Oireachtas) or by at least four of Ireland’s 31 local authorities, although former presidents can nominate themselves.

Sky News interviewed 134 members of the 174-seat parliament, and not a single one was interested in supporting McGregor’s bid for the presidency.

While ‘interesting characters’ have been supported by local authorities in the past, McGregor might be a tad up-against it in Ireland.

“Notorious” has a pretty darn long controversies rap sheet, which we won’t go into depth here, but you can read all about it elsewhere – Wikipedia for instance, which links to reputable media sources. Spoiler: it starts out with driving offences, accusations of racism and robbery, and then the charges and allegations get a whole lot worse in nature from there.

“I genuinely would struggle to think of anyone worse to hold that position,” Fine Gael (a centre-right party) Senator Garret Ahearn said.

“I could not think of anyone more unfit for public office,” Lower house Labour Teachta Dála (minister) Duncan Smith said.

“Conor McGregor’s divisive behaviour and rhetoric would be completely unsuitable for such a role,” Fine Gael Teachta Dála Maeve O’Connell agreed.

Failed crypto foray

This isn’t the first time McGregor has dabbled in the cryptocurrency space.

Just last month, the former MMA fighter launched a coin with the Real World Gaming team, a token named REAL.

The presale goal was $1 million but the coin flopped, raising less than $400,000 which had to be refunded to buyers.

RWG acknowledged the auction had failed, but is looking to relaunch the fundraising although the team hasn’t announced a date for the next auction.

A host of celebrity-backed meme coins have similarly failed, including President Trump’s own coin $Trump, which crashed out to lose more than 90% of its value within weeks of launch.

Major crypto exchanges acknowledge about 97% of meme coins fail, which certainly doesn’t breed confidence.

Either way, without the backing of the Irish authorities, it looks like McGregor’s bid will more than likely be going the same way as his coin – dead before it ever passes the starting line.