Over the last decade, people from all walks of life have shown a keen interest in crypto – sports stars included. You don’t have to look hard to find a sports player who is linked to crypto in some way. Household name athletes have become crypto investors, crypto ambassadors, and crypto enthusiasts – from Tom Brady and Trevor Lawrence to Lionel Messi and Serena Williams.
Perhaps these stars view crypto as a worthwhile investment. Or, maybe they consider the likes of Bitcoin to be the most convenient financial option, especially when it comes to online shopping and entertainment. Cryptocurrency is considered to be the fastest and most convenient way of completing an e-commerce purchase.
Plus, most crypto casinos come with geo-allowance, which means they can be accessed from anywhere – whether you’re in the UK or the USA. This is vital for sports stars, given that they’re on the move for most of their professional careers.
Whatever the reason, one thing that’s for sure is that many sports stars have taken a liking to digital currency. Here are some of the most notable crypto-enthusiastic sports players:
Tom Brady
The legendary quarterback not only helped his teams win the Superbowl seven times, but he also helped legitimize cryptocurrency in the US. Brady is a highly respected household name, and his word holds a lot of influence throughout America. So, his continued and heavy advocacy of cryptocurrency has undeniably encouraged many sports fans to invest.
Brady himself is known to have invested in a wide range of cryptocurrency and blockchain brands. Not only that, but he also co-founded Autograph, an NFT platform. This site allows NFT investors and artists to buy and sell digital collections. Since retiring, he’s invested a significant amount of his $300 million net worth in crypto and NFTs.
Overall, Brady’s celebrity status and his keen interest in digital currency have definitely impacted the cryptocurrency industry.
Trevor Lawrence
While on the topic of quarterbacks, Trevor Lawrence is another NFL crypto investor. However, unlike Brady, Lawrence takes a more proactive approach to his crypto endorsement. The Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback started his crypto advocacy in 2021 when he signed a deal with the cryptocurrency investment app Blockfolio.
When the 2021 draft came around, Lawrence became the number-one pick overall. During his signing, all eyes were on him. Lawrence took full advantage of this opportunity to promote cryptocurrency. The Jaguars offered him an impressive $22.6 million signing bonus. Lawrence took this bonus and invested it entirely in his Blockfolio account.
Not only does this convey a high level of confidence in the cryptocurrency industry, but it also conveys Lawrence’s keenness in digital investing. This moment went down in history, and Lawrence will always be remembered as a prominent crypto advocate.
Spencer Dinwiddie
Moving onto the NBA, Spencer Dinwiddie is another professional athlete who takes crypto advocacy very seriously. Like Lawrence, Dinwiddie has been very proactive on the crypto scene.
In 2019, he attempted to tokenize his basketball contract. At a time when little was known about crypto and the blockchain, the idea of tokenizing anything was unheard of. Even though Dinwiddie ultimately wasn’t allowed to tokenize his contract, the fact he attempted to do it solidified his reputation as a crypto innovator.
Dinwiddie has maintained this reputation in the years since and has taken any opportunity he can find to promote cryptocurrency. He’s even described the past few years’ worth of crypto investing as ‘the birth of a new asset class’.
Odell Beckham Jr
Moving back to the NFL, Odell Beckham Jr was one of the many sports stars who joined in the trend of requesting that their salary be paid in cryptocurrency. In 2021, Beckham Jr signed a $750k contract with the Los Angeles Rams. This is a considerable amount of money that most people wouldn’t want to risk losing.
However, Beckham Jr’s confidence in cryptocurrency was so strong, that he asked for the entirety of the $750k to be paid in Bitcoin. Although many sports starts were cashing in on this crypto contract trend in 2021/2022, Beckham Jr’s decision made headlines due to the amount and the fact he invested basically the entirety of his worth in Bitcoin.
This conveyed real confidence in digital currency and undeniably must have influenced both sports stars and sports fans alike to invest in Bitcoin and other cryptos.
Lionel Messi
Lastly, to show how much cryptocurrency has captured the imagination of the world of sports, Lionel Messi is probably the biggest crypto advocate in the world of soccer. His crypto enthusiasm has even seen the soccer player do everything from requesting payments in crypto to launching his own line of NFTs.
Upon signing with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), part of Messi’s contract was paid in $PSG, which is the team’s own cryptocurrency that’s based on the Socios.com platform. In the same year, Messi collaborated with Ethernity to make his own line of NFTs. Like most celebrity line NFTs, this collection reportedly made a substantial amount of revenue.
Being one of the most famous soccer players in the world, Messi has also no doubt inspired plenty of crypto gambling throughout the world as well.
