Russell Okung to convert half his NFL salary to Bitcoin

By: Nicolas V.

Carolina Panthers tackle Russell Okung has agreed to receive half of his $13 million salary in the form of the volatile cryptocurrency, a payments startup announced Tuesday.

Although the NFL still pays Okung in US dollars, the checks are now sent via direct deposit to Zap, a startup that converts traditional paychecks into bitcoin.

Okung tweeted in May 2019 that he wanted to be paid with the digital token.

On Tuesday, Okung’s Twitter account was updated to say “Paid in Bitcoin.” He also tweeted a possible motivation for the odd request: “When we are all paid in Bitcoin, no one can tell us what to do with the value we create.”

The 32-year-old Texas native may not be the last professional athlete to be paid via digital currency. Zap founder Jack Mallers, who is reportedly a friend of Okung, told CoinDesk that unnamed players on both the Yankees and Brooklyn Nets have joined the program.

Bitcoin has been on a tear of late, surging past the $20,000 mark for the first time earlier this month and recently trading as high as $28,387 per coin.

The value of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency has been boosted by hopes that it will become a more widely used payment method, with mainstream digital payments firms such as PayPal and Square allowing Bitcoin on their platforms.

The digital coin has soared before only to crash back down to earth again, most notably in 2017 when it first neared the $20,000 mark.