Three-time NBA Champion Andre Iguodala Becomes the Latest Athlete to Receive Salary in Cryptocurrency

High-profile athletes have been receiving their multi-million salaries in cryptocurrency since 2019, starting with Russell Okung in May 2019. If these champions had a lot of influence and a lot of people, young and old, looked up to them, then if they trusted cryptocurrency enough to accept payment in crypto, then that could convert into so much more. You can see where I’m headed, ka-ching. As one of the highest-paid professions in the world, they can easily have a lot of influence. even without asking people directly to buy bitcoin or to use a particular exchange or money transfer tool. Andre Iguodala is an idol and people want to be like him. Their fans seek to form a relationship with them, so if Andre Iguodala trusted cryptocurrency enough to receive his salary in Bitcoin, a lot more people, fans from all over the world, would be joining in. Passionate fans, each a citizen of digital technology, consume sports and related content beyond the actual duration of the match. The sports industry has to devise new ways to ensure that clubs and fans remain connected. With that you can either say cryptocurrency or bitcoin is a life changer or a destroyer.

Read on to see how the whole event unfolds. 

A number of pro athletes are already receiving their salaries in crypto; among them are Aaron Rodgers, Odell Beckham, and Russell Okung, the pioneer of this movement. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban’s team, the Dallas Mavericks, has been accepting payments using digital assets via BitPay since 2019. The Golden State Warriors’ Andre Iguodala, a three-time NBA champion, finally joins this number to be one of the NBA Champions receiving their salaries in crypto. Andre T. Iguodala is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been in 18 NBA seasons and plays the shooting guard/small forward position. He has played for five NBA teams and has 3 championship NBA titles, all of which he got while playing for the Warriors. As a result of an agreement reached between Iguodala and CashApp, on Monday, January 10th, he will be receiving a part of his $2.64 million monthly salary in dollars. At today’s price of 42654 USD per bitcoin, that would be roughly 31 bitcoins, assuming the part was half. He took to Twitter to publicize the new development. His tweet reads, “I’m excited to announce that I’m taking part of my salary in Bitcoin with CashApp! Bitcoin is the future, and @klaythompson and I are both believers in it. He also said that he would be giving out a million dollars in BTC and asked fans to follow Cashapp on Twitter and then drop their cashtag in the comments with the hashtag “paidinbitcoin“. Cashapp has facilitated giveaways like this in the past. It was the same in the cases of star NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. In March 2021, Cash App enabled its users to send and receive bitcoin with no fees on transactions and announced a similar $1 million bitcoin giveaway, so the giveaway is not really a new phenomenon. Yet, CashApp took to their website to inform users once again of the official rules of the giveaway. In a news flash, the giveaway, which they popularize as a sweepstakes, is only open to legal residents of the 50 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia.

As more athletes invest in Bitcoin and accept it as a form of payment, confidence will be instilled in the average person to do the same. While the majority of these athletes are NFL pros, the list is growing to include NBA players and professional soccer players. More people buying cryptocurrencies will bring more people into the industry, benefiting the industry in the long run. With the cryptocurrency price now reaching new highs, other pro athletes could be triggered to start investing in Bitcoin. Recently, the NBA team Sacramento Kings’ owner, Vivek Ranadive, announced that in the near future, anyone in the organization who wishes to receive a portion of their salary, or even all of it, will be able to, from players to coaches to staff and members. Bitcoin’s safe-haven characteristics are a major draw factor not only for athletes but also for businesses and countries as a whole. Since they hold their own coins, they would be motivated to invest in other cryptocurrencies they believe in apart from bitcoin.