Panthers offensive tackle Russell Okung will receive half of his $13MM in salary in bitcoin, per an announcement from Okung and a payments startup called Strike. Okung, who once tweeted “Pay me in Bitcoin!,” will fulfill his goal with the help of the Panthers. Rather than receiving his entire paycheck directly in USD, the Panthers will send half of his dollars to the payment company, who will then deposit bitcoin into Okung’s account.
While this is more of a savvy PR stunt than anything else, it’s notable that the Panthers are working in concert with the Bitcoin company to make it possible. The arrangement has also been approved by the NFL and the NFLPA. The founder of Strike’s parent company claims that members of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets are also in the process of switching to crypto, but such plans may require the cooperation of the NBA and MLB.
Okung, 32, is in the final year of the four-year, $53MM contract he originally signed with the Chargers. He’ll be a free agent in a matter of months, though he’s hinted at potentially retiring to pursue outside endeavors. Over the last two years, Okung has been limited to just 13 total games. After missing the previous two weeks with a calf injury, it’s unclear if he’ll play in the season finale against the Saints.
Okung has become one of my favorite NFL players. This an outside the box idea that could pay off down the road. $100 investment in bitcoin 10 years ago would net you 30 mil today.
Okung is smart and insightful. Look at his twitter page a bit if you aren’t following him. I expect big things from him down the road.
Certainly is smart after convincing 2 NFL teams to pay him against a 4 year contract for basically 2.5 years of work!
Maybe he should give his current and former employer a lesson in business economics!
LOL right on!!!
I mean the start of the 2019 season because of blood clots. So are you suggesting the lesson here is to suffer a life-threatening medical condition to try and get out of working while getting paid?
He was good for a false start or two in Seattle per game plus a hold every few games. It was not so much the penalties but the timing. They seemed to ruin a drive or take away a TD. That and the constant injuries. Seattle fans I know where glad to see him go. Not sure why you think he is so smart because he represented himself or is buying into a crypto coin. The man as a player is not great the man as an intellect not sure.
yea smart to do it when bitcoin is at all time highs….
interesting. i dont think ill ever be sold on Bitcoin for being actually anything worthwhile, but still cool.
I mean, its the same concept as paper dollars just without the government money printer
except with way more volatility
And same taxes.
He’s still getting paid in paper dollars. He’s just having his paycheck sent to a Bitcoin broker to convert the dollars to BC.
Same as sending my paycheck to a gold broker and buying $x of gold for my paycheck * .95.
I’d love to see how much Strike is going to charge for this transaction. I use to buy and sell foreign currency futures, and the banks would charge me 1-2% for the transaction, and all they would do is to match me up on an offsetting transaction, and charging the other party 1-2%, doe virtually no risk.
Bitcoin is supply and demand. Basically Tulip Mania. The dollar and other currencies are factored by reserves of gold, foreign currencies, foreign reserves. The valuation of the dollar or the GBP doesn’t fluctuate like Bitcoin not will it ever unless it all comes crashing down. Brexit was huge and it was like a 25% haircut on the GBP compared to USD. And that happened once and rise and fall is less dramatic since it before that. Bitcoin can move 25% daily with no rhyme or reason.
My concern would be transaction fees and safety.
If the true market price for a Bitcoin was $28,000, and Okung’s paycheck is $280,000, is he getting 10 Bitcoins, or more like 9.5 BC? And if he uses the BC to buy a house, is it going to cost him 10.5 BC?
Even the honest brokers are in business to make money. They aren’t dealing in volatile financial instruments unless their cut is large enough to offset any negative price movements.
However it’s treated as an investment like stock and not actual currency, and its foundation is pure speculation. And since it’s managed via blockchain, the security is questionable at best (though that’s not the intended output).
This could lead to Josh Gordon asking to be paid in shares of cannabis stocks.
Or just cannabis.
The thing about pyramid schemes is that they actually work out really well for everyone except the people who lose at the end.
If anyone would like to buy “money” I made on my computer, hey, let me know. Get in on the ground floor.
It’s the ‘bigger idiot’ theory. Something new is popular every year. And folks buy whatever is popular, sell it, and make money. And then reverses the process.
It sounds like someone getting ripped off in a 3-card monte game, until you realize that billion $ pension funds were buying Alt B mortgages that they knew nothing about.
This would have been smarter six or seven years ago, but not as much today. The fact that there are several cryptocurrencies popular today illustrates the growth of the concept recently. How much more it will grow is the question-of course it won’t die off, but you’re betting on the viability of using it to change entirely.
Of course, Okung also has plenty of real money stowed away, so concerting some to crypto won’t hurt him too much. I don’t know if I would essentially take my pay in it, but I’d I had that much money, I wouldn’t see as much risk in converting a portion.
PAY ME IN HOT DOGS!