U.S. football player Odell Beckham Jr. plans to accept his salary for the Los Angeles Rams in bitcoin, Bloomberg reported Monday (Nov. 22).
In a tweet Monday, Beckham said the arrangement came about because of an agreement with Cash App, the Square-backed mobile payments service, and called it the “start of a new era.”
Beckham said he’s also giving away $1 million in bitcoin to fans on Twitter.
This is just the latest incident of a popular athlete accepting cryptocurrency for their salary. Green Bay Packers player Aaron Rodgers recently announced a similar deal with Cash App to receive part of his salary in bitcoin.
Bloomberg notes that Cash App’s services include users sending and receiving money, investing in stocks and trading bitcoin. The FinTech company’s third quarter revenue fell lower than analysts expected, partly because there were fewer crypto transactions than anticipated in the recent quarter, which ended in September.
See also: Cash App to Add Bitcoin Taproot Support
While some of the top cryptocurrencies are lagging even after setting new record highs, other cryptocurrencies — including Z-Cash and Crypto.com’s CRO coin — are doing very well, Bloomberg also reported Monday (Nov. 22).
Z-Cash is up 30% since the beginning of November, and the Avalanche token experienced a 50% gain over the past seven sessions.
Meanwhile, the CRO has become the 13th largest by market capitalization, with its value sitting around $18 billion.
The rise of more niche cryptos can sometimes be tied to specific industries, such as Crypto.com recently replacing Staples as the namesake of a huge Los Angeles sports center.
Read more: Crypto.com Closes $700M Deal for Naming Rights to Staples Center in LA
However, more popular digital coins experienced a selloff in the last week. Bitcoin experienced an almost 20% correction, while ether was down around 8% from its high on Nov. 10.
Strategists have said that bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies sold off partly because of China’s crypto crackdown and recent U.S. tax-reporting provisions, which have been seen as hostile to crypto investors.
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