Celebrities have often shown their love of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the past. Figures such as musician Kanye West and boxer Floyd Mayweather have all discussed their love of digital money and have even devoted some of their business ventures to it, though very few have ever agreed to be paid in crypto or have converted healthy portions of their salaries into crypto. However, one sportsman – Russell Okung – is taking his love of bitcoin and digital assets to the next level.
Okung: Bitcoin Is a Revolution
Okung is a Pro Bowl tackle for the Carolina Panthers. A longtime bitcoin proponent, he is now converting much of his salary from his days on the field into bitcoin, making him the first athlete to do so. His love of bitcoin can be traced back to the year 2019, when he initially tweeted that he wanted to be paid in bitcoin. However, this presented something of a problem in that payments for American football players were initially offered and handed out in U.S. dollars.
A league spokesman made the following rather clear:
NFL players are paid in U.S. dollars. He is then converting that to bitcoin.
While it is illegal for the league to give a bitcoin-based salary to Okung, there is no law prohibiting him from using the funds to get his fingers on the world’s fastest-growing digital currency by market cap. Basically what’s happening is he is receiving his paychecks like normal. He is then working to convert roughly 50 percent of his salary – that’s right folks, he’s converting half his money – into bitcoin using the Strike product from Zap.
While 50 percent may not be as appealing as 100 percent, look at it this way… Okung earns $13 million each year from his job. Thus, he’s transferring about $6.5 million into BTC. That’s a lot of bitcoin.
In a press release issued by Strike, Okung mentions the following:
Money is more than currency; it’s power. The way money is handled from creation to dissemination is part of that power. Getting paid in bitcoin is the first step of opting out of the corrupt, manipulated economy we all inhabit. Bitcoin fans are not only disrupting the status quo; we are reclaiming power that is rightly ours. PAY MEIN BITCOIN today becomes a reality thanks to Strike and the Panthers front office. This is the acknowledgement of a new way, a new path and a new future that recognizes diversity in finance and a reclamation of true financial control.
How to Get Bitcoin Quickly
Jack Mallers – CEO of Strike – also put his two cents in, stating:
Strike users can easily spend wherever bitcoin is accepted, and with the launch of our bitcoin payday product, everyone has a simple way to get paid in bitcoin. Today, anyone can sign up for early access at payday.strike.me.
