Carolina Panthers offensive lineman Russell Okung is the first player in NFL history to be paid part of his salary in bitcoin, a type of digital currency.
Okung announced the news in a Tuesday tweet, writing, “Paid in Bitcoin,” as a quote tweet to a previous post from 2019 where he wrote, “Pay me in Bitcoin.”
Paid in Bitcoin. https://t.co/Ey6oOcmLjA
— russ (@RussellOkung) December 29, 2020
Strike, a company that helps convert traditional currencies to cryptocurrency, revealed in a press release that half of the player’s $13 million base salary would be paid in bitcoin. According to Strike, Okung is the first player in the league to receive such a deal. The company says that while the Carolina Panthers ultimately paid Okung in traditional currency, half of his salary was passed through the company, which converted it to bitcoin.
The currency is exchanged between people using a public recording system that allows it to eliminate the need for middlemen like banks. According to data provided by Morningstar for Currency and Coinbase for Cryptocurrency, one bitcoin is currently worth just over $27,725.
“No one entity owns it or controls it,” Okung wrote in a 2019 op-ed. “… Bitcoin is undermining the status quo of intermediaries: no more banks, no more money managers, no more governments telling you what you can and can’t do with your money.”
Okung has been in the NFL since 2010 and, according to USA Today, has earned over $108 million. This offseason, he is due to become a free agent.
