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Top NBA Pick Paid in Bitcoin for BlockFi Sponsorship Deal
Former Oklahoma State star Cade Cunningham's multi-year deal with the crypto lender includes a bitcoin signing bonus.
Par Danny Nelson
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Top NBA draft pick Cade Cunningham signed a sponsorship deal with crypto firm BlockFi Thursday that will see the up-and-coming Pistons point guard receive his signing bonus in bitcoin.
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BlockFi wouldn’t say how much Cunningham’s bitcoin signing bonus was worth. It intends to collaborate with the former Oklahoma State University star on educational and promotional videos through the “multi-year” deal.
Read more: Panthers’ Russell Okung Becomes First NFL Player to Be Paid in Bitcoin
The deal continues a trend of top-drafted athletes forging early-career pacts within the digital assets industry – and receiving at least part of their payout in crypto. Trevor Lawrence, the first overall draft pick in in the National Football League, received a mix of bitcoin, ether and solana when he signed an FTX sponsorship in April.
Crypto companies are racing to build brand recognition across global sports. Whether it's a soccer team wearing a dogecoin logo, an umpire emblazoned with FTX or a UFC octagon brought to you by Crypto.com, the big players have mounted an advertising blitz with their bull market gains.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
Cosa sapere:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Coinbase CEO says Big banks now view crypto as an ‘existential’ threat to their business
Brian Armstrong returns from World Economic Forum with message: traditional finance is taking crypto seriously
What to know:
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said a top executive at one of the world’s 10 largest banks told him crypto is now the bank’s “number one priority” and an “existential” issue.
- At Davos, Armstrong highlighted tokenization of assets and stablecoins as major themes, arguing they could broaden access to investments for billions while threatening to bypass traditional banks.
- He described the Trump administration as the most crypto-forward government globally, backing efforts like the CLARITY Act, and predicted that AI agents will increasingly use stablecoins for payments outside conventional banking rails.
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