The world of soccer (or football, depending on where you live) has been intertwined with the world of cryptocurrency thanks to several teams having partnerships with crypto companies and soccer stars advocating for the sector.
A professional soccer player who took a portion of his salary in Bitcoin BTC/USD in 2021 continues to hold the leading cryptocurrency and is up over 100%.
What Happened: Soccer player Alex Crognale is one of several professional athletes who has taken a portion of their salary in Bitcoin over the years.
A 2021 story highlighted Crognale, who has played for U.S. League (USL) team Birmingham Legion since 2020, taking 15% of his salary in Bitcoin in September 2021 with the exchange facilitated by payroll service Bitwage.
"I have been buying Bitcoin since 2020 using various exchanges, Coinbase, Binance, CashApp, I've tried them all," Crognale said at the time. "The Bitwage platform allows me to dollar-cost average into Bitcoin with ease and without transaction fees."
Crognale had a portion of his salary paid in Bitcoin that is direct deposited. In 2022, the allocation increased to 25% as reported by Coindesk.
The soccer player, who also spent three seasons with Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew (2017 to 2019), recently tweeted an update on his Bitcoin holdings.
"I still hold all the bitcoin over the last 3 years. It's up over 100% in value. Saving in Bitcoin works," Crognale tweeted, sharing the 2021 Bitcoin Magazine post.
Crognale shared in a subsequent tweet that he has been playing professional soccer for eight years and has been holding Bitcoin since 2020.
"I'm a simple man. I like playing football and I like playing with my Bitcoins," Crognale also tweeted.
The soccer player also said he is trying to build a "strategic Bitcoin stockpile" for his family similar to what former President Donald Trump wishes to do for the U.S.
Why It's Important: Several professional athletes have taken a portion of their salary in Bitcoin, including former NFL player Russell Okung.
Crognale and other athletes allocating a portion of their salary to Bitcoin and dollar-cost averaging could be similar to the strategy of accumulating Bitcoins with cash flow done by MicroStrategy Inc MSTR.
Bitcoin traded at a high of $57,793.04 on the day the story about Crognale ran in Bitcoin Monthly. A $1,000 investment in Bitcoin at the time would be worth $1,144.68 today and up 14.5%.
Crognale saying he is up more than 100% comes from his continued accumulation of Bitcoin at different price points over the past three years.
In 2021, Crognale said he became interested in Bitcoin due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the stimulus money given out to Americans.
"The more stimulus money pumped into the economy, the less the dollars in our pockets are worth. Quantitative easing was necessary to keep our country from falling into a depression, but the long-term impact was understated if mentioned at all," Crognale previously said.
The soccer player said the fixed supply of Bitcoin "makes it resistant to inflation" and the crypto is also not able to be controlled by one government body.
"People now have a vehicle to store their wealth without the risk of anyone printing away their savings."
In 2022, Crognale said professional athletes can only play for a number of years, making investment and money decisions important for the future.
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