No, Trevor Lawrence did not lose $15 million of his NFL signing bonus in the crypto collapse.
Over the last couple years, it was all the rage for athletes — including Odell Beckham Jr. and Russell Okung — to publicize that they were taking their pay in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, so a chart has been making the rounds showing how much each of them lost.
A number of outlets, including Barstool Sports, covered the eye-popping figure that Lawrence’s $24 million signing bonus, allegedly taken in crypto, was now worth just $9 million — a staggering $15 million loss.
However, Lawrence says that is not true.
“Did y’all confuse my @FTX_Official signing bonus with my @NFL one?” Lawrence asked Barstool on Twitter on Wednesday. “Carry on…”
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy responded: “To our defense @Trevorlawrencee the guy who wrote this [a writer who goes by the name Big Tennessee] is kinda dumb.”
Last April, Lawrence announced a sponsorship deal with Blockfolio — which later rebranded to become FTX — that was touted in the press release as marking “the first endorsement deal ever in which a significant signing bonus has been paid entirely in cryptocurrency.”
It is relatively easy to see how the language was misinterpreted as it came amid myriad headlines of other athletes taking their actual salary in crypto.
It’s also worth noting that various stock or other business investments Lawrence could’ve made 14 months ago also may have plummeted since then.
Nonetheless, the Blockfolio/FTX signing bonus has lost about 60 percent of its value, presuming Lawrence never cashed any of it out in the interim.