The universally expected number one pick in the NFL 2021 weekly darft, Trevor Lawrence is going crypto.
As a sports man, it is expected to be selling an NFT, but the reverse is the case in this instance, he signed an endorcdement deal with Blocfolio, that amounts to a multi-million naira. Blocfolio is a crypto portfolio tracking app, that was bought by FTX, a crypto exchange.
The price tag of the deal was not shared by Blockfolio, but a unique singing bonus was included in the deal and which the complete payment was made in cryptocurrency. The payment was made into the Blocfolio’s accout of Trevor.
Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana were Trevor’s choice of payment for the start.
There’s also a charitable element to the deal, something important to both Lawrence and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried: the deal will include a $100,000 joint donation to be announced after the NFL Draft.
Lawrence has already signed endorsement deals with Adidas and Gatorade, with many more surely on the way. Blockfolio parent company FTX has just signed a 19-year, $135 million deal to be the naming rights sponsor of the Miami Heat arena, and FTX COO Sina Nader tells Decrypt more sports marketing deals are on the way for the company.
Nader says Lawrence aligning with a crypto company “speaks to increasing awareness and mindshare when it comes to what people are aware of in finance. Once you start to see names like Trevor Lawrence, and prominent people in entertainment, the taboo is officially shattered. People are realizing that crypto is a real thing.’
FTX says it is the largest crypto exchange in the world outside of China, with more than $10 billion in average daily volume internationally. (Its global business, FTX.com, does not operate in the U.S., where it has a separate company, FTX.us; Sam Bankman-Fried is CEO of both.)