Last November, Odell Beckham Jr. stirred the media when the Los Angeles Rams wide receiver announced that he would receive his new salary in bitcoins.
Beckham, who was moving to Los Angeles from Cleveland, signed a partnership with the Cash app.
Several NFL players are paid in Bitcoin
“It’s a NEW ERA and for starters, I can’t wait to announce that I’m taking my new salary in bitcoin,” tweeted the three-time Pro Bowler, who also said he was giving away $1 million in bitcoins to fans.
Beckham is one of at least five current NFL players who receive at least a portion of their salary in the form of crypto pay. The list includes Aaron Rodgers, Trevor Lawrence, Russell Okung and Saquon Barkley.
Beckham – along with many others – took a financial hit last month when bitcoin’s value plunged.
The Action Network, a sports media company, took a look at this situation and asked a simple question: how could other top NFL athletes get away with converting their current salaries to cryptocurrency? ?
The company analyzed bitcoin and ethereum trends between 2020 and 2021 and 2021 and 2022 and came up with boom and bust lists for some of the biggest names in gaming.
“Turning back the years to 2020, it is amazing how football players with mega salaries could have cashed in on the impending bitcoin boom,” Action Network said. in a report. “In fact, anyone investing their salary every week in 2020 could have increased their salary 2.5 times by January 2021.”
Football and crypto are no strangers. Last month’s Super Bowl was dubbed “The Crypto Bowl” due to the number of cryptocurrency exchanges buying ads that aired during the Game Bowl.
The action network said each star’s annual income was divided by 52 to reveal their weekly salary.
Mahomes goes long on crypto
The weekly figure was then averaged in dollars to reveal the return on investment if converted to bitcoin or ethereum each week over the years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was the big winner, according to the report.
Fresh off a Super Bowl LIV win and accompanying MVP performance, Mahomes was making $863,013 a week.
Had he invested in bitcoin, Mahomes could have earned an additional $113.86 million between January 2020 and January 2021.
Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen unwittingly sat on $108.81 million in potential unrealized profits in 2020, report says, while Cowboys’ Dak Prescott could have made $101.20 million .
Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, who faces civil lawsuits and criminal complaints over sexual assault allegations reportedly missed $98.68 million.
Quarterback Russell Wilson, who the Seattle Seahawks recently traded to the Denver Broncos, could have raised $80 million.
But all good things must come to an end and cryptocurrency is no exception.
“If 2020 was the year to profit from Bitcoin, 2021 was the exact opposite,” the report states. “Any player whose dollar cost averaged their salary between January 2021 and January 2020 would have seen their crypto salary drop 19.51% and lose millions.”
So if Mahomes, who married Saturday in Hawaii, had invested his weekly pre-tax earnings in bitcoin last year, he would have lost $8.78 million by January 2022.
Josh Allen, Dak Prescott, and Deshaun Watson ultimately avoided losses of $8.39 million, $7.80 million, and $7.60 million, respectively, by not investing in bitcoin.
Bitcoin crash could cost Mahomes, WIlson
Last year’s bitcoin crash could have cost Russell Wilson $6.82 million.
Now let’s talk about ethereum, which is second only to bitcoin in terms of market capitalization. However, in 2020, that was largely an unknown quantity.
And if Mahomes had invested his weekly income in 2020 in Ethereum, he would have accumulated $357.43 million, or more than a third of a billion dollars by 2021.
“It would take him eight years to earn this on his salary alone,” Action Network said. “And with the unpredictable nature of the NFL, that’s hardly guaranteed money.”
Josh Allen, Dak Prescott and Deshaun Watson reportedly raked in over $300 million, while Wilson could have racked up $200 million or more.
“Of course, no one wants to be the first to risk their hard-earned paycheck on an unknown product,” the report says. “Hindsight is always 20/20, as they say.”
Yes, and what goes up must come down, and Ethereum also fell in 2021 and 2022.
Any player converting their 2021-22 salary to Ethereum would have suffered a total loss of 4.91%.
Mahomes and Allen reportedly lost $2.20 million and $2.11 million, respectively. Prescott, Watson and Wilson avoided losses of more than $1.5 million each, according to the report.
