Mark Moss on the Game of Wealth: Scarce Assets, Borrowing Against Bitcoin, and Why He Never Plans to Sell
March 5, 2024
On Scarce Assets episode 5, Mark Moss argues that wealth is a game of acquiring scarce assets rather than selling them for dollars: earn income, buy assets that cannot be printed, and borrow against them when you need liquidity instead of triggering a sale and capital gains. He applies the framework to bitcoin as the scarcest asset in a roughly $900 trillion global asset landscape, and shares the 2008 over-leverage experience that shapes his conservative approach to borrowing today.
Hosts Andy Edstrom and Jesse Myers are joined by investor and educator Mark Moss for a conversation about what Moss calls the game of wealth: the goal is not to sell assets for dollars, it is to earn dollars to acquire scarce assets.
Moss walks through the store-of-value landscape (the roughly $900 trillion in global assets that he and the hosts have both sized), why scarce assets outrun ordinary ones during monetary expansion (his example: Lake Travis waterfront homes rising 200 percent while Austin real estate rose about 40 percent), and where bitcoin fits as the scarcest asset of all.
The back half gets practical and personal: borrowing against bitcoin instead of selling it, how Moss thinks about loan-to-value after being over-leveraged on real estate in 2008 and losing eight figures to margin calls, why he keeps borrowing near 10 percent of his stack, declining bitcoin drawdowns across cycles, and his answer to the perennial question of what price he would sell at.
Recorded on the Scarce Assets show from Onramp Media. The views expressed are the guest's and the hosts' own; nothing here is investment advice from Onramp.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Mark Moss mean by the game of wealth?
That the objective is to grow your assets, not to trade them back into dollars. In his framing, people who ask what price he would sell bitcoin at misunderstand the game: dollars are what you earn and borrow against assets, scarce assets are what you keep.
Does Mark Moss recommend borrowing against bitcoin instead of selling?
He describes doing it himself, conservatively, borrowing around 10 percent of his holdings so he can meet any realistic margin call. He is candid about the risk: in 2008 he was leveraged around 60 percent LTV on real estate, prices fell 60 percent in a year, and he lost the properties. The lesson he draws is that the strategy works only at low loan-to-value. This is his own approach as a guest on the show, not advice from Onramp.
What are scarce assets?
Assets whose supply cannot expand to meet demand: waterfront property, fine art, certain collectibles, and bitcoin, which Moss considers the purest case because its supply is fixed regardless of demand. In inflationary periods, scarce assets have historically appreciated much faster than ordinary assets.
This episode is editorial and educational content. Onramp does not provide tax, legal, or investment advice. Bitcoin is volatile and may lose value. Past performance does not guarantee future results.