Which NBA and NFL stars are investing in cryptocurrencies?

Author: Zen, PANews

Recently, retired NFL player Russell Okung reposted an old news report on the X platform that the sports media Bleacher Report (BR) accepted his salary in the form of Bitcoin, and wrote: "Society wants to tame you and hope that you become predictable. But greatness requires wildness."

The tweet quickly gained millions of views, and when Bitcoin broke through the $90,000 mark, many people began to realize how correct Okung's controversial choice was.

In the North American sports world, there are many celebrities and athletes like Okung who are keen on Bitcoin. For example, a BR report in 2019 stated that NFL quarterback Matt Barkley had asked the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals to pay his contract in Bitcoin, but was rejected. It is worth mentioning that Barkley played for these two teams from 2017 to 2018, when Bitcoin was still far from being recognized by the mainstream society. Now, investing in Bitcoin has become commonplace, and there are precedents for directly converting wages into Bitcoin in the two top sports leagues, the NFL and the NBA.

In this article, PANews will review the well-known NFL and NBA players who are actively involved in the crypto market. The information comes from their public statements or overseas media reports. While they have received rich returns in the crypto industry, they have also promoted the popularization of cryptocurrencies through their words and deeds.

Spencer Dinwiddie

Although he has been to many teams this year and his declining competitive form has made him contribute less and less on the court, Dallas Mavericks guard Spencer Dinwiddie should have a lot of gains from his cryptocurrency investment off the court. This "cryptocurrency pioneer" among NBA players was initially recommended Bitcoin by a friend who worked in finance in 2014. However, due to too many "horror stories" of failed investments in the NBA, the 21-year-old rookie with an annual salary of only $1 million did not dare to get involved easily, but chose more traditional and stable real estate investment.

In December 2016, Dinwiddie signed a three-year, $2.9 million contract with the Brooklyn Nets. At that time, the price of a bitcoin was about $775, and it had doubled by the end of the regular season. In that season, Dinwiddie finally played his worth and established his position in the Nets. At the same time, he was determined not to miss the growth of the bitcoin price. In the fall of 2017, when the new NBA season began, Dinwiddie also began to pay close attention to his investment. Before the game, in the locker room, when most players were busy getting into the "state " , he would open Coinbase, an application that supports cryptocurrency trading, to observe and study the market. When he began to play the best performance of his career, the price of Bitcoin also soared rapidly. By the end of the same year, the price had tripled from the beginning of the season to $15,000. In addition, he also began to study some relatively unknown tokens at the time, such as Tron, which he earned 5 times the profit when he exited.

In December 2018, Dinwiddie, who had a near-All-Star performance, received a three-year, $34.36 million contract extension from the Brooklyn Nets . The following year , Dinwiddie overcame official resistance from the NBA and converted the contract into an investment tool called Dream Fan Shares, through which he would sell 90 SD8 tokens or professional athlete investment tokens (PAInT), but in the end only 10% was sold, far below the $13.5 million target. In addition, Dinwiddie also co-launched Calaxy, a social marketplace for creators, and has raised at least $33.5 million in funding.

Last October, in an interview with well-known sports reporter Michael Scotto , Dinwiddie talked about his plans after retirement. He said that Calaxy's current valuation is 9 figures, and if it can reach 10 figures in the next cycle, he will completely "enjoy retirement life". (Some Chinese sports media mistakenly believed that Dinwiddie disclosed that he has hundreds of millions of cryptocurrency assets) However, even if Dinwiddie did not receive his salary in Bitcoin as rumored, and never took the initiative to disclose his cryptocurrency assets in the 9 figures, as a multi-millionaire who bet on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency early on, his gains over the years must be very considerable.

Klay Thompson & Andre Iguodala

Andre Iguodala on the left and Klay Thompson on the right

Dinwiddie's current teammate, Klay Thompson, who just joined the Dallas Mavericks, is currently the biggest player to publicly support receiving part of his salary in the form of Bitcoin. The All-Star shooting guard, who was once known as the "Splash Brothers" with Stephen Curry, once said in a tweet: "I invest in Bitcoin because I believe it is the future of currency."

In January 2022, after suffering consecutive anterior cruciate ligament and Achilles tendon injuries, Klay finally announced his return after two and a half years away from the court. Perhaps during the recuperation and rehabilitation period, Klay was recommended by his teammate Andre Iguodala. After Klay returned, the two immediately announced a cooperation with Cash App to convert part of their salary into Bitcoin and donated $1 million worth of BTC to fans. Iguodala wrote in a tweet: "I used Cash App to convert part of my salary into Bitcoin! Bitcoin is the future, and Klay Thompson and I are both believers in Bitcoin."

Klay's contract income for this season is about $40 million, while the details of Iguodala's veteran minimum contract have not been made public, but it is estimated to be around $3 million. However, as a well-known technology investor in the NBA, Iguodala has already received generous returns through venture capital, so he has the confidence to convert all his income for this season into Bitcoin. According to data from Buy Bitcoin Worldwide, Iguodala received a salary of $2.647 million in the form of Bitcoin. Klay, who was "introduced" by Iguodala, should also hold at least this amount of Bitcoin assets.

Cade Cunningham

Cade Cunningham, the star player of the Detroit Pistons, joined the NBA as the No. 1 pick in 2021. This mature rookie with excellent basketball IQ seems to be equally insightful in investment and financial management. He announced an exclusive multi-year partnership with BlockFi in the summer before the start of the season. As part of the cooperation, BlockFi will provide Cunningham with a signing bonus, which will be paid directly to his BlockFi account in the form of Bitcoin. "What interests me about cryptocurrencies is their ease of use, democratic and consensus foundations, and their ability to evolve over time to meet the changing needs of financial consumers, including myself," Cunningham said in a statement.

When FTX crashed and caused BlockFi to go bankrupt, many people recalled Cunningham's business cooperation with the latter. According to Crain 's Detroit Business , a source familiar with the cooperation said that the amount of Bitcoin bonus Cunningham received was very small, which was negligible compared to the commercial endorsement fees he received in cash from BlockFi. After that, there was no news about Cunningham's crypto investment. In fact, compared with the five-year, $224 million maximum salary extension contract he signed with the Pistons, the 2 to 3 times Bitcoin income he might get is indeed not worth mentioning.

Tyrese Halliburton

Earlier this year, at the annual NBA All-Star Weekend, Coinbase held an event called "moonshot", and Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton was interviewed by CoinDesk while attending the event. He said that he had heard about Bitcoin when he was in college a few years ago, and Dinwiddie was the first person in the NBA to express his opinion on it. "The first cryptocurrency I came into contact with was Ethereum, because that was the blockchain I used for NFT, so I invested a lot of money in Ethereum. I want to get involved in Bitcoin because it is a blue chip stock in cryptocurrency."

Haliburton said he doesn't day trade due to his personal schedule, but his younger brother does it often. "So I could imagine taking a chunk of money out of my contract and giving it to my brother to day trade and watch the market go down. I could definitely imagine that being a possibility for me." Haliburton could indeed do that - last July, the All-Star guard signed a five-year contract with the Pacers with a maximum amount of $260 million.

Scottie Pippen

In July this year, Scottie Pippen joined the cryptocurrency space. The NBA star who helped Jordan establish the Bulls dynasty first teased his entry on social media, and later launched the fan token Game 5 Ball ($BALL) on the Ethereum blockchain in August, which is tied to the ball used in Game 5 of the 1991 NBA Finals. Shortly after the token was issued, on-chain detective ZachXBT discovered that the developer wallet that created the token contract sold off about $330,000 worth of token supply almost immediately after the launch, sparking strong opposition from the community. As of November 19, the circulating market value of $BALL was approximately $5.6 million.

Related reading: Asking "Ethereum or Solana?", NBA star Pippen, who once issued NFTs, is returning to the encryption field to make things happen .

It is worth mentioning that although Pippen was criticized and ridiculed for his series of words and deeds in Game 5 Ball, he "accidentally" almost predicted the surge in Bitcoin. In September this year, Pippen tweeted that Satoshi Nakamoto told him in a strange dream that the price of Bitcoin would reach $84,650 on November 5. In the end, the price of Bitcoin was close to $70,000 on November 5, and it really reached around $85,000 a week later.

Russell Okon

At the end of 2020, Russell Okung, who joined the Carolina Panthers, announced that he would receive half of his $13 million salary in Bitcoin. However, according to technology media TheVerge , the Carolina Panthers confirmed to the media that all teams pay players' salaries in US dollars. The article also stated that Okung's move may be to promote Zap, a Bitcoin Lightning Network payment company, according to which anyone can get their salary "in Bitcoin" at any time.

Finally, Okon and Zap's Strike announced a partnership, with the latter paying part of his salary in Bitcoin. Six months later, when the price of Bitcoin hit $60,000 and then fell rapidly, he said he would not sell Bitcoin even if the crypto market fell, and he has never publicly disclosed his investment strategy since then. It is speculated that if Okon still keeps the 240 Bitcoins purchased with half of his 2020 salary until today, these Bitcoins will be worth more than $20.9 million.

Trevor Lawrence

In April 2021, Trevor Lawrence, who had just been selected as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, signed an agreement with FTX to promote the company's investment application Blockfolio. FTX said it was the first transaction in which "the signing bonus was paid entirely in cryptocurrency." According to USA TODAY, Lawrence's investment portfolio includes mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and he has also invested in the blockchain Solana.

In June 2022, when the crypto market entered a bear market, rumors circulated on social media that Lawrence exchanged the entire $24 million signing bonus for cryptocurrency and lost $15 million. Lawrence then refuted the rumor on Twitter, saying that these people confused the $24 million signing bonus of the NFL No. 1 pick with the signing bonus of FTX. According to Bloomberg , the bankruptcy filing of an FTX affiliate stated that Lawrence received a payment of $500,000 in September 2022. In addition, other athletes who have been sued for endorsing FTX include Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O'Neal, Naomi Osaka and Shohei Otani, but these wealthy top athletes do not seem to be interested in this emerging field and have not disclosed any investment in cryptocurrencies.

Saquon Barkley

"We've seen inflation, and we've learned that wealth can't be preserved. That's why I'm using Bitcoin as marketing money." In July 2021, while a guest on Pomp Investments founder Anthony Pompliano's new YouTube show "Best in Business," New York Giants star running back Saquon Barkley announced that he would pay 100% of all future endorsement contracts in Bitcoin through a partnership with Strike. Barkley has endorsement deals with well-known brands such as Nike, Toyota and Pepsi. Pompliano analyzed that Barkley's endorsement fee "exceeds $10 million a year."

Aaron Rodgers

On November 21, 2021, quarterback Aaron Rodgers tweeted that he had partnered with Square's CashApp to convert an undisclosed portion of his 2021 salary into Bitcoin. As mentioned above, Clay and Iguodala did the same thing, and Rodgers also announced that he would donate $1 million worth of Bitcoin. At the time, the 37-year-old player signed a four-year, $134 million contract with the Green Bay Packers, earning an average of $33.5 million per season.

Odell Beckham Jr.

"Who said I was stupid for receiving my Rams salary in Bitcoin?" On November 14, after Russell Okung celebrated the surge in Bitcoin, Odell Beckham Jr. also publicly responded to the doubts he had raised on X.

On November 22, 2021, Odell Beckham Jr., a wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams, tweeted that he would work with CashApp to receive his new full salary in Bitcoin. Beckham's contract with the Rams included a base salary of $750,000, a signing bonus of $500,000, and a $3 million bonus, and Beckham finally earned this large bonus because he won his first Super Bowl in his career with the team.

Sean Culkin

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Sean Culkin is the first NFL player to announce that he will convert all his salary into Bitcoin. In April 2021, ESPN revealed that Culkin, who was signed by the Chiefs in February on a reserve/future contract, plans to convert all of his $920,000 salary into Bitcoin. Culkin said: "I want to do this because I think Bitcoin will continue to rise in the long run," he added: "In the long run, it is a means of storing value. The reason why Bitcoin is so difficult to control is because of its scarcity. If you look back at history, you will find that it will appreciate over time."

However, one month after Culkin announced the plan, he was cut by the Chiefs . Since such contracts are usually non-guaranteed, he may not be able to get any remaining salary. Since then, he has not played for any team. However, judging from the laser eye avatar on his X platform and the background picture of the player wearing bitcoin letters, Culkin is indeed a very small number of loyal fans of Bitcoin among athletes.