Kansas City Chiefs’ Sean Culkin becomes first NFL player to convert whole salary to Bitcoin

If he makes the Kansas City Chiefs’ program to start this season, tight end Sean Culkin will be the primary NFL player to change the entirety of his compensation over to Bitcoin.

Culkin, who is vying to be a backup starter Travis Kelce, would be paid his $920,000 salary by the Chiefs in U.S. dollars yet thus will convert it to Bitcoin.

“I’ve always had a lot of interest in and a passion for finance and economics from my days at Mizzou,” Culkin said. “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. It just seemed like it was getting bigger and bigger.

“Through education and learning and having a level of conviction over the course of time, I just felt like I wanted to be compensated from my services in football in Bitcoin.”

Culkin, 27, joined the Chiefs this previous February on a reserve/future contract. He tweeted about his decision before Monday, saying Bitcoin is “the future of finance.”

Culkin has played 19 career NFL games and got two passes for the Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens. In any case, he said the impending season would be his first for changing his paycheck to Bitcoin.

“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. The more research I did and the more I zoomed out, I didn’t necessarily link volatility to risk. I saw Bitcoin was growing at such an exponential rate.

“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. Long term, it’s a stored value. What makes Bitcoin so intractable is its scarcity. Over time, it’s deflationary by nature. If you look at history, it appreciates over time.”

Veteran offensive lineman Russell Okung reported this previous December that approximately 50% of his 2020 salary from the Carolina Panthers would be converted to Bitcoin. What’s more, quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the reasonable No. 1 generally draft pick, signed an endorsement deal with cryptocurrency investment app Blockfolio on Monday. The organization said his marking reward will come in cryptocurrency.