From dribbling to investing: Basketball players in world of cryptocurrency

​Basketball has long ceased to be just a sport, increasingly intersecting with the world of financial technology. More and more players are investing in digital assets, athletes are becoming the faces of crypto projects, and clubs are partnering with crypto exchanges. But why is the world of basketball choosing cryptocurrencies?

Last week it was revealed that one of the NBA’s most popular players, Kevin Durant, turned out to be a bitcoin hodler. He bought his first BTC back in 2016, when he played for the Golden State Warriors, but only recently discovered that he had lost access to them.

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Durant’s agent, Rich Kleiman, even organized a press conference where he explained that the player had kept his bitcoins in a Coinbase account, but due to a lost password, was unable to sell them.

“We still haven’t been able to recover the login data from Coinbase, so we haven’t sold a single coin. Meanwhile, bitcoin just keeps going up. So, overall, it actually works in our favor,” he said.

The story ended well. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote on X that Durant’s password had been successfully restored and the athlete once again has access to his crypto holdings.

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How many bitcoins Durant owns is unknown. But considering he began buying them when the price ranged from $360 to $1,000, his investment has now grown by more than 17,700%.

Which other basketball players own Bitcoin

Kevin Durant is far from the only NBA player investing in cryptocurrency. The first to publicly express his interest in digital assets was Spencer Dinwiddie. In 2017, during bitcoin’s rapid rise, he began buying crypto, seeing it as an alternative to traditional investments and a way to preserve wealth.

In 2019, he even tried to tokenize part of his $34.4 million contract. Dinwiddie wanted to issue tokens that would give investors a share of his future income. However, the league rejected the idea, since a player cannot “transfer” rights to his earnings under contract to third parties. Later, Dinwiddie stepped back from loud crypto ventures, limiting himself to occasional jokes on the topic.

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Another well-known player who tied his life to Bitcoin is Scottie Pippen. Michael Jordan’s longtime teammate has been actively investing in the leading digital asset for several years and encourages others to do the same. He began buying BTC in 2024, joking that it happened right after Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto “appeared to him in a dream.”

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Of course, that was a joke. But Pippen is quite serious about cryptocurrencies, believing they are the future of finance. Promoting digital assets among fans, he even launched his own project Game5Ball, built on tokenizing the iconic ball from Game 5 of the 1991 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. On the Ethereum blockchain, Pippen introduced the BALL token, allowing fans and collectors to own a share of this historic artifact.

Next comes Klay Thompson. One of the most accurate shooters in NBA history joined the crypto trend in early 2022. Together with his teammate Andre Iguodala, he announced that he would receive part of his salary in bitcoin using the Cash App platform.

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Other basketball crypto projects

The living legend of basketball today is, of course, LeBron James. Unlike the players mentioned above, he doesn’t publicly advertise holding digital assets. But that didn’t stop him from becoming part of the crypto world.

In May 2023, James signed a deal with Crypto.com, aimed at supporting educational initiatives in the Web3 sphere. A central element of the program was teaching blockchain and related professions to students from underprivileged neighborhoods in Akron, LeBron’s hometown. The partnership was no coincidence: Crypto.com purchased naming rights to the Los Angeles Lakers’ home arena for $700 million, turning it into Crypto.com Arena.

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Since we mentioned LeBron James, we must also recall the NBA’s highest-paid player — Stephen Curry. His experience with crypto projects was less successful. In 2021, Curry became an ambassador for the FTX exchange and received equity in the company. According to media reports, the deal was worth up to $35 million. At the same time, Curry bought an NFT from the Bored Ape collection. But after FTX collapsed, his name appeared among the celebrities accused of promoting the exchange without adequately warning investors about the risks.

Cryptocurrency is already part of sports

There are countless examples of crypto collaborations and initiatives in basketball. Cryptocurrencies have already become part not only of players’ investment portfolios but also of the league’s infrastructure. Arenas are named after crypto exchanges, clubs partner with blockchain companies, and individual athletes use their influence to promote educational initiatives in Web3.

For basketball players, crypto is not just a way to grow wealth, but also a chance to shape the future. For some, it’s an investment in alternative assets; for others, it’s social projects and fan engagement through blockchain. One thing is clear: the link between basketball and cryptocurrency is no accident but a new trend that’s here to stay.