Walking into the crowded hotel meeting space, Andrew Batey looked like any other technical person attending ETHDenver, an annual crypto meeting. A venture capital investment based in Florida, Batey, nevertheless, was at the event not to community but to combat one of them- live on YouTube. At the resort, a quick drive from the convention convention centre, under the watchful eye of a consultant from the Colorado Combative Sports Commission, Batey, 40, stripped down to his athletes. He weighed in at just under 195 lbs, on target for the battle. The bare-chested endeavor bourgeois raised his forearms and stretched for cameras. America’s technology elite, never content with inexplicable wealth and rising social influence in Washington, have just developed a fresh obsession- fighting. Across the United States, guys like Batey are learning to blow, kick, leg, neck and, in some cases, nail an opposition over the mind with their hands. The leader of the action is Mark Zuckerberg, the businessman CEO of Meta, who has charted his remarkable physical change from thin computer nerd to martial arts fighter on Instagram, one of the apps he owns.
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The technical industry’s new devotion to martial art is one component of a broader social change that has upended US politics. Many of these digital founders-turned-fighters are chasing a testosterone-heavy excellent of manhood that is rising on social media and embraced by President Donald Trump. An enthusiastic worker of Portuguese kickboxing, Zuckerberg, 40, lamented this year that organizational culture was getting “neutered” and was free of “masculine power. ” In 2023, Zuckerberg’s other billionaire Elon Musk, a lifelong commercial enemy, challenged him to a televised cage match. But that battle always took place. Most of the digital world’s young soldiers have a vital thing in common: Before they started pursuing their luxurious new passion, they made a lot of money. In 2018, Batey founded Beatdapp, a company that develops applications to reduce fraud in audio streaming. He even runs a venture capital firm, Side Door Ventures, that invests in bitcoin companies. Two years ago, Batey’s venture fund invested$ 500,000 in Karate Combat, a would-be rival to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The group operates as a cross between an sporty contest and a tech startup. More than offering standard shares, Karate Combat gave Batey’s strong Karate tokens- a crypto that fans can win on Karate Combat fights, which flow on YouTube as well as Television channels like ESPN Deportes. Karate Combat‘s primary business is professional fighting- mixed martial arts contests featuring seasoned athletes, some of whom also fight in UFC. ( A representative for Karate Combat declined to reveal how much money the league generates. )Last year, the company created a new competition for amateurs and started offering it as the undercard at pro events, which are sometimes held at crypto conferences. The competition was called Influencer Fight Club, and its premise was simple: Put a couple of tech guys in the ring and see what happens. Over the past 18 months, the competition has featured some big names in the crypto world, including Nic Carter, a venture investor known for his combative posts on the social site X. At a crypto conference in Nashville, Tennessee, last summer, Carter, boasting an impressive physique, knocked out a tattooed crypto marketer in one round. On social media, he was hailed as “kingly” and adopted the nickname” Tungsten Daddy. “
