Author: Zen, PANews
Recently retired NFL player Russell Okung reposted an old report from BLEACHER REPORT on X about his acceptance of salary in Bitcoin, captioning it: "Society wants to tame you, hoping you become predictable. But greatness needs wildness."
This tweet quickly garnered millions of views, and when Bitcoin broke through the $90,000 mark, many began to realize how correct Okung's controversial choice was at the time.
In North American sports, there are many celebrities and athletes like Okung who are enthusiastic about Bitcoin. For example, a report by BR in 2019 stated that NFL quarterback Matt Barkley had requested to be paid in Bitcoin by the San Francisco 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals, but both requests were denied. It is worth noting that Barkley played for both teams from 2017 to 2018, a time when Bitcoin was far from mainstream acceptance. Now, investing in Bitcoin has become commonplace, and there have been precedents in both the NFL and NBA for directly converting salaries into Bitcoin.
This article by PANews will summarize well-known NFL and NBA players who are actively investing in the cryptocurrency market, with information sourced from their public statements or overseas media reports. While they have gained substantial returns in the crypto industry, they have also promoted the popularization of cryptocurrencies through their words and actions.
Spencer Dinwiddie
Although he has switched teams multiple times this year, and his performance on the court has declined, Dallas Mavericks guard Spencer Dinwiddie (Spencer Dinwiddie) should have reaped significant rewards from his cryptocurrency investments off the court. This "cryptocurrency pioneer" among NBA players was initially introduced to Bitcoin in 2014 by a friend in finance. However, due to the many horror stories of investment failures in the NBA, the then 21-year-old rookie, earning only $1 million a year, was hesitant to get involved and chose more traditional and stable real estate investments instead.
In December 2016, Dinwiddie signed a three-year, $2.9 million contract with the Brooklyn Nets, at which point a Bitcoin was priced at about $775, and by the end of the regular season, it had already doubled. During that season, Dinwiddie finally made a name for himself and established his position with the Nets, while he also resolved not to miss out on Bitcoin's price growth. With the start of the new NBA season in the fall of 2017, Dinwiddie began closely monitoring his investments. Before games, while most players were busy getting into "the zone" in the locker room, he would open the cryptocurrency trading app Coinbase to observe and research market trends. As he began to perform at the best of his career, Bitcoin's price also skyrocketed, tripling from the beginning of the season to reach $15,000 by the end of that year. Additionally, he began researching some relatively low-profile tokens at the time, such as Tron, from which he made a fivefold profit upon exiting.
Fast forward to December 2018, Spencer Dinwiddie, who was close to an All-Star performance, received a three-year, $34.36 million contract extension from the Nets. The following year, Dinwiddie overcame NBA official resistance and converted the contract into an investment tool called Dream Fan Shares, through which he planned to sell 90 SD8 tokens or Professional Athlete Investment Tokens (PAInT), but ultimately only sold 10%, far below the $13.5 million target. Additionally, Dinwiddie also launched a creator social marketplace called Calaxy, raising at least $33.5 million.
Last October, during an interview with renowned sports journalist Michael Scotto, Dinwiddie mentioned that Calaxy's current valuation was in the nine figures, and if it could reach ten figures in the next cycle, he would completely "enjoy retirement". (Some Chinese sports media misunderstood this as Dinwiddie disclosing that he owns over a hundred million in cryptocurrency assets.) However, even if Dinwiddie did not receive his salary in Bitcoin as rumored, and he has never actively disclosed his cryptocurrency assets being in the nine figures, as an early bet on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency millionaire, his earnings over the years must have been quite substantial.
Klay Thompson & Andre Iguodala
Left: Andre Iguodala, Right: Klay Thompson
Dinwiddie's current teammate, Klay Thompson, who recently joined the Dallas Mavericks, is currently the biggest name publicly supporting receiving part of his salary in Bitcoin. The former All-Star shooting guard, known as one half of the "Splash Brothers" with Stephen Curry, once tweeted: "I invest in Bitcoin because I believe it is the future of currency."
In January 2022, after a two-and-a-half-year absence from the court due to previous ACL and Achilles injuries, Klay finally announced his return. Perhaps during his recovery and rehabilitation period, Klay was recommended by teammate Andre Iguodala. Upon his return, both immediately announced their partnership with Cash App, converting part of their salaries into Bitcoin and each donating $1 million worth of BTC to fans. Iguodala tweeted: "I converted part of my salary into Bitcoin using Cash App! Bitcoin is the future, and Klay Thompson and I are both believers in Bitcoin."
Klay's contract for the season was approximately $40 million, while Iguodala's veteran minimum contract details were not disclosed, estimated to be around $3 million. However, as a well-known technology investor in the NBA, Iguodala had already obtained substantial returns through venture capital, so he had the confidence to convert all of his earnings for the season into Bitcoin. According to Buy Bitcoin Worldwide, Iguodala received $2.647 million of his salary in Bitcoin. Klay, who was "led into the door" by Iguodala, should also hold at least this magnitude of Bitcoin assets.
Cade Cunningham
Cade Cunningham, the star player of the Detroit Pistons, joined the NBA in 2021 as the first overall pick. This mature and highly intelligent rookie seems to have a good insight into investment and finance as well. Before the season, he announced an exclusive multi-year partnership with BlockFi. As part of the collaboration, BlockFi would provide Cunningham with a signing bonus paid directly in Bitcoin to his BlockFi account. "What interests me about cryptocurrencies is their usability, democratization, and consensus basis, as well as their ability to evolve over time to meet the changing needs of financial consumers, including myself," Cunningham stated in a release.
After FTX's collapse led to BlockFi's bankruptcy, many recalled Cunningham's business partnership with the latter. According to Crain's Detroit Business, a source familiar with the partnership stated that the amount of Bitcoin bonus Cunningham received was very small, almost negligible compared to the cash payment he received from BlockFi for his endorsement. Since then, there has been no further news about Cunningham's crypto investments. In fact, compared to the five-year, $224 million max extension contract he signed with the Pistons, potential Bitcoin earnings of 2 to 3 times that amount are indeed not worth mentioning.
Tyrese Haliburton
Earlier this year, during the annual NBA All-Star Weekend, Coinbase held an event called "moonshot," where Indiana Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton was interviewed by CoinDesk while participating. He stated that he had heard about Bitcoin a few years ago while in college, and Dinwiddie was the first in the NBA to comment on it. "The first cryptocurrency I got involved with was Ethereum, because that was the blockchain I used for NFTs, so I invested a lot in Ethereum. I wanted to get into Bitcoin because it is the blue-chip stock of cryptocurrencies."
Haliburton stated that due to his personal schedule, he would not engage in day trading, but his brother often does. "So I can imagine taking a significant amount out of my contract, giving it to my brother for day trading, and watching the market go down. I can definitely imagine this as a possibility for me." Haliburton could indeed do this—last July, the All-Star guard signed a five-year contract extension with the Pacers worth up to $260 million.
Scottie Pippen
In July of this year, Scottie Pippen entered the cryptocurrency space. The NBA legend who helped Jordan establish the Bulls dynasty first teased on social media, and later in August launched a fan token called Game 5 Ball ($BALL) on the Ethereum blockchain, linked to the basketball 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 almost immediately sold off about $330,000 worth of the token supply, triggering strong backlash from the community. As of November 19, the circulating market cap of $BALL was approximately $5.6 million.
Related: In response to the question "Ethereum or Solana?", NBA star Pippen, who previously issued NFTs, plans to return to the crypto space to make a splash.
It is worth noting that although Pippen was criticized and mocked for his actions surrounding Game 5 Ball, he "unexpectedly" almost predicted the rise of Bitcoin. In September of this year, Pippen tweeted that Satoshi Nakamoto told him in a strange dream that Bitcoin's price would reach $84,650 on November 5. Ultimately, on November 5, Bitcoin's price was close to $70,000, and a week later it indeed reached around $85,000.
Russell Okung
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 tech media The Verge, the Carolina Panthers confirmed to the media that all teams pay player salaries in dollars. The article also stated that Okung's move might be to promote the Bitcoin Lightning Network payment company Zap, allowing anyone to receive their salary "in Bitcoin" at any time.
Eventually, Okung and Strike, a company under Zap, announced a partnership that would allow part of his salary to be paid in Bitcoin. Six months later, when Bitcoin's price surged to $60,000 and then quickly dropped, he stated that even if the crypto market fell, he would not sell his Bitcoin, and he has not publicly disclosed his investment strategy since then. Speculation suggests that if Okung still holds the 240 Bitcoins he purchased with half of his 2020 salary, those Bitcoins would be worth over $20.9 million today.
Trevor Lawrence
In April 2021, Trevor Lawrence, who was just elected as the first overall pick in the NFL Draft, signed an agreement with FTX to promote the company's investment application Blockfolio. FTX stated that this was the first deal where the signing bonus was paid entirely in cryptocurrency. According to USA TODAY, Lawrence's portfolio includes mainstream cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and he also invested in the Solana blockchain.
In June 2022, as the crypto market entered a bear market, rumors circulated on social media that Lawrence had converted his entire $24 million signing bonus into cryptocurrency, losing $15 million. Lawrence later debunked the rumors on Twitter, stating that these people confused the $24 million signing bonus of the NFL first overall pick with the signing bonus from FTX. According to Bloomberg, bankruptcy filings from FTX affiliates state that Lawrence received a payment of $500,000 in September 2022. Moreover, other athletes who were sued for endorsing FTX include Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O'Neal, Naomi Osaka, and Shohei Ohtani. However, these wealthy top athletes seem uninterested in this emerging field and have not disclosed any cryptocurrency-related investments.
Saquon Barkley
"We see inflation, and we recognize that wealth cannot be preserved. That's why I want to use Bitcoin for marketing funds." In July 2021, during a guest appearance on Pomp Investments founder Anthony Pompliano's new YouTube show (Best Business Show), New York Giants star running back Saquon Barkley announced that he would receive 100% of all future endorsement contracts in Bitcoin by partnering with Strike. Barkley has endorsement agreements with well-known brands like Nike, Toyota, and Pepsi. Pompliano analyzed that Barkley's endorsement fees "exceed $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 earlier regarding Klay and Iguodala's operations, Rodgers also announced that he would donate $1 million worth of Bitcoin. At that time, the 37-year-old player had signed a four-year contract with the Green Bay Packers worth $134 million, averaging $33.5 million per season.
Odell Beckham Jr.
"Who still says it's silly for me to receive my salary from the Rams in Bitcoin?" On November 14, after Russell Okung celebrated the surge in Bitcoin, Odell Beckham Jr. publicly responded to past doubts on X.
On November 22, 2021, Odell Beckham Jr., who plays for the Los Angeles Rams, tweeted that he would collaborate with CashApp to receive his entire new salary in Bitcoin. Beckham's contract with the Rams included a base salary of $750,000, a signing bonus of $500,000, and $3 million in bonuses, and because he won his first Super Bowl with the team, Beckham ultimately earned this substantial bonus.
Sean Culkin
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Sean Culkin is the first NFL player to announce that he will convert all of his salary into Bitcoin. In April 2021, ESPN reported that Culkin was signed by the Chiefs under a reserve/future contract in February and plans to convert his entire salary of $920,000 into Bitcoin. Culkin stated, "I want to do this because I believe Bitcoin will continue to rise long term," adding, "In the long run, it is a store of value. The reason Bitcoin is so hard to manage is its scarcity. If you look back in history, you will find that it appreciates over time."
However, a month after Culkin announced this plan, he was cut by the Chiefs. Since these contracts are usually non-guaranteed, he may not receive any remaining salary. Since then, he has not played for any team. However, from his laser-eyed avatar and the background image of himself wearing Bitcoin letters on the X platform, it is clear that Culkin is one of the very few Bitcoin loyal fans among athletes.
