Why WNBA Star Jewell Lloyd Is Leaning On Crypto – And Why Bitcoin And Ethereum Are ‘Anchors’

No one in the WNBA can put the ball in the basket like Jewell Lloyd, who set the league's single-season scoring record last year with 939 points for the Seattle Hurricanes. This surpassed Diana Taurasi's record of 860 points in 2006.

Off the court, Lloyd has become Face For crypto-savvy athlete investors, Coinbase, the NBA and WNBA's exclusive cryptocurrency partner since 2021.

The 30-year-old Chicagoland native bought her first bitcoin in 2013 while playing collegiately at Notre Dame. Lloyd and her brother, a former basketball player Jared Lloyd entered the crypto market together after growing up with parents who emphasized the importance of financial literacy.

“I was one of the first people to publicly say that I was investing in crypto and taking some of my salary,” Lloyd said. Decrypt. “After that, the teams we'd play with would always have somebody like, ‘Yo, why are you doing that? what is it?'”

“That was my teaching time,” she continued, “and it was great because I wasn't a schoolboy and everyone asked him how to understand the question. I was always the one asking the questions. So it was nice to have that reversed. “

Coinbase has partnered with the WNBA to create crypto educational content, and introduced an in-person crypto crash course for beginners at the 2022 WNBA draft. Lloyd converts a portion of her WNBA salary into currencies through the Coinbase app, with Bitcoin and Ethereum making up the majority of her holdings.

“For me, those are like anchors,” she said of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the leading cryptocurrencies. “The basketball analogy is you always need a good center. And those two are good centers for me.”

After making her fifth All-Star team last season, Lloyd Signed She won two WNBA titles (2018, 2020) as part of a two-year, $463,000 contract extension with the Hurricanes, after Seattle drafted her with the first overall pick in 2015.

While salaries are not as lucrative as their male NBA counterparts, many WNBA players play overseas during offseasons to earn extra income. The decentralized nature of crypto was beneficial to Lloyd as she played for professional teams in Turkey, China, South Korea and Spain.

“[Coinbase] It's been one of my favorite partnerships with the WNBA personally, because I'm obviously invested in it—but it's empowering women to get ahead in the financial world,” Lloyd said. “I am very lucky to be playing overseas and living overseas, but sending money and using money overseas is very difficult. Living a [faster] And it makes sense for a cheaper way to move money overseas and back and forth.

Coinbase He gave 120,000 dollars As part of sponsorship of the WNBA Commissioner's Cup semi-finals tournament in August against the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces in Bitcoin. The league has offered fans NFTs as a digital collectible to commemorate a teammate, even though Coinbase Su bird For those who attended Bird's jersey retirement ceremony at Seattle's Climate Promise Arena in June.

Lloyd said Crypto's biggest help came from her efforts to help Rwanda, where Lloyd and her brother sent computers and money to local residents.

“We're always trying to figure out ways to send money to help our cause, and it would have been much more difficult without using crypto,” she said. Decrypt. “It will be there when you need it. It's more efficient and we see more change that way with the community we work with.

“They are very talented working in Rwanda. They don't always have the resources,” Lloyd added. “I'm excited to give to the next generation of kids and athletes. Anyone who wants to learn, I am willing to help them.

Edited by Andrew Hayward.