The Kansas City Chiefs’ Sean Culkin will be the first National Football League player to be paid entirely in bitcoin.
Culkin may not make the team – he’s among those seeking to back up all-world tight end Travis Kelce – but would take his $920,000 salary in U.S. dollars and convert the payment to bitcoin.
He formed a foundation for his financial future while at the University of Missouri.
“I’ve always had a lot of interest in and a passion for finance and economics from my days at Mizzou,” Culkin said in an ESPN story. “Even before that, my dad was big, really bullish on gold. Early on, I was always exposed to his philosophies on what made gold an intractable investment looking at it from a macro perspective.
“There’s a lot of overlap between gold and bitcoin. I really spent all of my time in the offseason the past year just hearing about this growing space in crypto.”
Culkin, 27, was signed to a reserve/future contract in February. He’s played 19 NFL games and caught two passes.
He’s realistic that the NFL may not be the answer to massive wealth, but he’s keen on investing.
“I want to do this with the thought it would continue to rise over the long term,” he said. “This for me is a long-term play, a generational play. …
“It’s going to have some large pullbacks and dips and people are probably going to say I’m crazy, but I’m focusing on the long term.”
Culkin will use Zap’s Strike for the currency transfer.
“Professional athletes today operate as independent businesses and are more sophisticated investors than they’ve ever been before,” Zap CEO Jack Mallers said in a statement. “We’re excited to help facilitate the growing intersection between sports and finance by converting his entire NFL salary to Bitcoin.”
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