Crypto
crypto
Tom Jones

OBJ’s bitcoin bet looks pretty smart now

When Odell Beckham Jr signed for the Los Angeles Rams in 2021, he made a pretty bold decision, opting to take his wages for the season in bitcoin. 

Now, with bitcoinsoaring over the last week, OBJ is biting back at BTC critics who scoffed at his decision at the time, and through the years since as bitcoin fluctuated, tweeting a screengrab of the coin’s record $92K price tag on Wednesday.

While we don’t know exactly how much of Beckham Jr’s total pay packet was crypto-based — he reportedly took a $500,000 signing bonus, $750,000 base salary, and $3 million in incentives after winning the Super Bowl with the Rams in Feb 2022 — we tracked what the $4.25 million bag would be worth today… IF Odell had hypothetically held its entire value in the coin. It would have been quite a ride: for a few years his decision would have left him underwater, with his theoretical holdings losing more than half of their value at one point, but if he held all the way to the record highs we’ve seen in the wake of Trump’s victory, it’d be worth nearly $11 million.

Odell Beckham Jr bitcoin bet
Sherwood News

While we don’t know exactly how much of Beckham Jr’s total pay packet was crypto-based — he reportedly took a $500,000 signing bonus, $750,000 base salary, and $3 million in incentives after winning the Super Bowl with the Rams in Feb 2022 — we tracked what the $4.25 million bag would be worth today… IF Odell had hypothetically held its entire value in the coin. It would have been quite a ride: for a few years his decision would have left him underwater, with his theoretical holdings losing more than half of their value at one point, but if he held all the way to the record highs we’ve seen in the wake of Trump’s victory, it’d be worth nearly $11 million.

Odell Beckham Jr bitcoin bet
Sherwood News

More Crypto

See all Crypto
$62B

Bitcoin digital asset treasuries (DATs) have taken a big hit amid bitcoin’s tumble, shedding $62 billion in value since the asset’s October 6 all-time high, Artemis data shows, with their fully diluted market cap dropping to $72 billion from $134 billion in early October.

Meanwhile, bitcoin, which has fallen below $62,000 on Friday morning, is down 50% from its all-time high. DAT pioneer Strategy’s market cap stood at $102.2 billion on October 6, according to Macro Trends, and is now down to $45.6 billion, a 55% decline. Strategy has been in hot water since it sold 32 bitcoin earlier this week, and because its digital credit instrument, STRC, has been trading below its par value. Shares of Strategy are down 17% in the past week.

crypto

“Sentiment for crypto is firmly in the gutter” as sector sinks, with tokens hitting multiyear lows

On Thursday, altcoins swept lower as bitcoin weakened. The tokens with the biggest losses in the last 24 hours are NEAR, ethena, and Zcash, each declining double digits in the period.

Other tokens have dropped to lows not seen in over a year in the past 24 hours:

  • Ethereum dropped 4.4% to under $1,780, a level not seen since April 2025.

  • XRP declined 4.5% to an 18-month low last hit in November 2024.

  • Solana decreased 6% to trade below the $70 mark, its lowest price since December 2023.

  • Dogecoin slid below $0.09, a 27-month low last seen in February 2024.

“Sentiment for crypto is firmly in the gutter as fears surrounding BTC/STRC and its potential overflow compound and overshadow anything that can be read as positive news (e.g. CLARITY movements),” according to Sean Dawson, head of research at crypto options platform Derive.xyz.

“[Altcoins] are high beta plays to BTC and are typically sold heavily in a downturn. Simply put, I’d be even more bearish on alts,” Dawson told Sherwood News.

“Further, liquidity has been drained into this year’s ‘superhot’ narrative of AI/data centers. In other words, there are just better, more exciting opportunities elsewhere,” Dawson added.

One cryptocurrency that has bucked the downtrend has been worldcoin, the native token for World, the digital identity project backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. While the broader crypto market has been pushing lower, WLD has jumped nearly 5% in the last 24 hours and 90% in the past seven days, data from CoinGecko shows.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC and Chartr Limited produce fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and are fully owned subsidiaries of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Money, LLC, Robinhood U.K. Ltd, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, Robinhood Gold, LLC, Robinhood Asset Management, LLC, Robinhood Credit, Inc., Robinhood Ventures DE, LLC and, where applicable, its managed investment vehicles.