Virtually precisely 4 years in the past, then-Carolina Panthers offensive lineman Russell Okung took half of his $13 million wage for the 2020 season and had his employer deposit the cash right into a crypto product from Zap known as “Strike” which bought Bitcoin with the funds.
On the time, Okung was known as the primary NFL participant to just accept his wage in Bitcoin, though that’s not precisely what was occurring. That didn’t make Okung’s gamble any much less dangerous. He took a assured $6.5 million and guess it on cryptocoins at a time when the time period was simply beginning to grow to be a family phrase. That Okung’s contract wound up being his final within the NFL solely compounded that danger, however no skilled athlete is ever assured one other payday.
Okung retired in 2023, having final formally performed 2020, however his place on Bitcoin held robust. On Monday evening, as Bitcoin topped $87,000 for the primary time, Okung started pulling out receipts to indicate how the gamble paid off. And to dunk on those that mocked him.
society desires to tame you, desires you predictable. however greatness calls for wildness. https://t.co/dDy7vYq0aW
— OKUNG 🐆 (@RussellOkung) November 11, 2024
Let’s do some fast math: Bitcoin was buying and selling at $27,081.81 on December 29, 2020 when the Bleacher Report tweet went out. If Okung purchased $6.5 million price of Bitcoin then, he’d have held slightly over 240 Bitcoins. If he held onto all 240, that might be price $21.36 million after Monday’s report excessive, bringing his complete contract worth with the Panthers to $27.8 million — which is fairly nice for somebody who solely made seven begins that season.
However there’s some fairly vital context wanted right here.
For one, we don’t know the way a lot Bitcoin Okung presently owns. He could have elevated his place or decreased. Bitcoin itself can be extraordinarily risky — as with all cryptocurrencies.
On the finish of 2022, a single Bitcoin might be bought for $10,000 lower than Okung initially paid in 2020. Which implies earlier than these 240 Bitcoins have been price greater than $20 million, that they had depreciated to roughly $4.08 million.
We additionally don’t know if Okung has cashed out his Bitcoin but after hitting report highs on Monday, so it’s not as if the $21 million is simply sitting in his pocket now. We do know that the crypto business at giant has benefitted significantly from an election cycle that noticed plenty of crypto critics voted out workplace in favor of pro-crypto candidates.
President-Elect Donald Trump, who was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise information, has additionally embraced a pro-crypto platform. That’s been a important driver of this week’s report highs.
Per the Related Press:
Crypto business gamers welcomed Trump’s victory, in hopes that he would be capable of push by legislative and regulatory adjustments that they’ve lengthy lobbied for. And Trump had beforehand promised that, if elected, he would take away the chair of the Securities and Change Fee, Gary Gensler, who has been main the U.S. authorities’s crackdown on the crypto business and repeatedly known as for extra oversight.
“Crypto rallied as Election Day progressed into the evening and because it grew to become more and more clear that Trump would emerge victorious,” Citi analysts David Glass and Alex Saunders wrote in a Friday analysis word, pointing to bigger business sentiment round Trump being “crypto-friendly” and a possible shift in regulatory backing.
If all of this appears considerably vibes-based, that’s not fully incorrect. However these vibes additionally assist clarify why a former offensive lineman is now tweeting like a large receiver.
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