Tom Brady, quarterback of the Super Bowl champs Tampa Bay Bucs has publicly joined the list of celebrities who are crazy for crypto. The football GOAT told the media that he’s a “big believer” in cryptocurrencies and has purchased digital coins but declined to say which ones specifically.
Brady notes that he has been discussing cryptocurrencies with one of his coaches, also an investor, for the past several months and has now changed his Twitter profile pic to one sporting laser eyes, a well-known sign of support for bitcoin believers.
An interesting conversation starter is Brady’s thoughts on the future of cryptocurrencies and why he has invested in it.
“The world is changing, we all just have to understand it’s constant change and you can either be ahead of the curve or behind it and I’m choosing to be ahead of it,” he said. “As someone who wants to be on the forefront of things, I’m going to help create the trend and adopt it and recognize this is where the world is heading.”CNBC.com
According to Brady he doesn’t believe cryptocurrencies are going away anytime soon and wisely pointed out that as the world changes rapidly with the advancement of new technologies it is foreseeable that the way we pay for things will not always be with dollars and cents but instead by “passing along technology.”
Brady says he doesn’t see the NFL paying players directly in cryptocurrencies in the immediate future but the Carolina Panthers’ Russell Okung received half of his $13 million salary in Bitcoin. For clarification, the Panthers organization did not pay Okung cryptocurrency directly, but instead sent approximately $6.5 million of his salary to Strike, an app that processes bitcoin transactions for him.
Other professional football players who have also opted in for Bitcoin are rookie Trevor Lawrence, recently drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He will invest his signing bonus with the crypto app Blackfolio to expand his portfolio that includes Bitcoin, Ethereum and the lesser known Solana blockchain. Additionally, Kansas City Chief tight end Sean Culkin claims he will be converting his entire salary (roughly $920k) into Bitcoin.
All of these NFL players, Brady, Okung, Lawrence and Culkin, acknowledged the volatility of cryptocurrencies and agree that is to be expected of new technology in an emerging market. However, all of them see blockchain digital currency as the future and want to be part of it.
These pro athletes are part of a growing group of celebrities like Serena Williams, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashton Kutcher who have all invested in cryptocurrencies and are sharing that with their fans and followers. And Mark Cuban, NBA team owner of the Dallas Mavericks likens blockchain technologies to “the early days of the internet.” In addition to his own investments in it, his team will accept cryptocurrencies for tickets to their games.
According to foxbussiness.com the price of a single bitcoin has increased nearly 300%. And while many digital currencies have seen a sharp drop in value recently, most are starting to bounce back.
While a few movie and/or TV stars and professional athletes who have invested in the crypto space are not an argument for its staying power, consider this: Even Bill Gates, Elon Musk, President Clinton and a former senior manager at Goldman Sachs, Aziz McMahon, are also bullish for bitcoin.
