Golden State Warriors stars will receive a portion of their salary in bitcoin and will each donate $1 million in BTC.
NBA players Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala will receive a portion of their next salary in bitcoin and will donate $1 million in BTC each to fans, the Golden State Warriors guard and forward announced Monday.
“I’m with bitcoin because I think it’s the future of money,” Thompson said in a Jan. 10 announcement tweet.
Thompson and Iguodala have partnered with Cash App, the bitcoin purchase and money transfer app owned by financial services company Block, run by Bitcoin bull Jack Dorsey and formerly known as Square, to facilitate their salary conversion. The app will also mediate donations, which are already active in ad tweets.
“Bitcoin is the future, Klay Thompson and I believe,” tweeted Iguodala on Jan. 10, sharing his payment plans.
Thompson and Iguodala are the latest to join a cohort of athletes who receive their compensation in cash created 13 years ago by the pseudonymous individual or group Satoshi Nakamoto. Since its inception, Bitcoin has made massive gains against the US Dollar and allowed its holders to dramatically increase their purchasing power, while fiat currencies lose value each year. Athletes have responded to this dynamic and are now demanding to be paid in bitcoin, a programmatically limited-issuance currency that is impossible to change.
The trend started when NFL player Russell Okung tweeted “pay me in bitcoin” in May 2019. In September of that year, the athlete told Bitcoin Magazine that he wouldn’t stop until he got paid in BTC. Although Okung was not the first to ask such a question, he started a movement after reaching his goal a year and a half later, in December 2020. The athlete was able to receive an indirect bitcoin payment through Strike, a Lightning payments app. . . who handled the conversion of his annual salary into BTC. The service is currently available to all Strike users.
In November 2021, NFL legend Aaron Rodgers announced that he would receive a portion of his salary in Bitcoins, while star Odell Beckham Jr said he would receive all of his annual compensation in BTC. In December, Patriots quarterback Mac Jones gifted bitcoins to his entire offensive line.
