Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Tom Brady celebrates after winning the Super Bowl LV, February 7, 2021.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady said he’s a “big believer” in cryptocurrencies, confirming that he’s purchased digital coins.
“I don’t think it’s going anywhere,” Brady said at the CoinDesk Consensus 2021 forum on Thursday. “I’m still learning so much. It’s definitely something I’m going to be in for a long time.”
“How we pay for things now is very different from how we paid for things when I was a kid,” Brady said. “At the end of the day it’s transactions and how they’re happening between people in the space of three to four feet … it’s not exchanging dollar bills anymore, it’s passing along technology.”
“The world is changing, we all just have to understand it’s constant change and you can either be ahead of the curve or behind it and I’m choosing to be ahead of it,” he added. “As someone who wants to be on the forefront of things, I’m going to help create the trend and adopt it and recognize this is where the world is heading.”
Brady didn’t say which coins he’s bought, but he’s indicated an interest in bitcoin. Earlier this month, for example, he changed his Twitter profile picture to include “laser eyes,” which is something many bitcoin enthusiasts do to show their support.
“I’ve been following that community for a while on Twitter, someone had really called me out to change my profile picture and use the laser eyes,” he said. “In my understanding it was a vote of confidence, to really get into the conversation as I’m such a believer in crypto and where things are headed in the world.”
Brady doesn’t think NFL players will paid in bitcoin anytime soon. “At the end of the day, technically, that can’t happen. What they pay is in dollars.” But he said it’s “absolutely” a good vehicle for investing money.
“I definitely think there will be more solutions as this is more widely adopted,” he added.
Earlier this year, Brady announced an NFT platform called Autograph that will auction off pieces of digital content linked to the blockchain when it launches sometime this spring.
Interest in cryptocurrencies has surged over this past year, with athletes, celebrities and business executives investing in different digital coins, believing cryptocurrencies are a portfolio diversifier. The price of a single bitcoin, the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency, is up more than 280% year over year, according to data from CoinDesk.
