Is Bitcoin Fiat Money?

Lee esto en Español

Tags: Gold Standard, Monetary Theory, Bitcoin

02/05/2026 Robert P. Murphy

Bob applies Mises’ taxonomy of money and the regression theorem to Bitcoin, asking whether it should be classified as commodity or fiat money and whether Austrian theory really rules out Bitcoin ever becoming money.

Related:

Mises’s The Theory of Money and Credit: Mises.org/HAP536a
Bob’s Study Guide to The Theory of Money and Credit: Mises.org/HAP536b
Bob’s Primer on Bitcoin: Mises.org/HAP536c

Politicians don’t build prosperity. Entrepreneurs do. Join Keith Smith, Caitlin Long, Ryan McMaken, Per Bylund, and Timothy Terrell for our first event of 2026: Mises.org/HAHC

The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Become a Member