:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bloomberglinea/HUPGBRBQTJAU3F6YW2MTB657VM.jpg "Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers warms up before the game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on October 03, 2021 in Foxborough, Massachusetts.")
Bloomberg — He threw his 600th touchdown pass — now Tom Brady wants to chuck a Bitcoin to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan who returned the ball.
The 44-year-old seven-time Super Bowl champion — a part-owner in Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Trading Ltd. who sports Bitcoin true-believer “laser eyes” in his Twitter profile picture — made the offer in a tweet directed to the crypto exchange.
FTX responded that they’re ready to make the trade.
“It’s not every day you get handed the ball from Tom Brady’s 600th touchdown pass and give it back, and it’s not every day you get gifted a Bitcoin,” said Bankman-Fried. “FTX was happy to support Tom in thanking this fan for his generosity.”
FTX, with 29-year-old Bankman-Fried at the helm, has become one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges since its launch just two years ago. The company recently raised more than $420 million in a funding round, swelling its valuation to $25 billion, and plans to run an advertisement during the next Super Bowl.
Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen earlier this year took an undisclosed equity stake in FTX, saying they would serve as ambassadors for the company. Since the deal was announced, the celebrity couple have starred in an FTX television advertisement that showed Brady calling friends and acquaintances to ask if they were “in” on cryptocurrencies.
So who got the better of this trade? Well, one expert said the football could be worth as much as $900,000, considering Brady is the first person to throw 600 touchdowns in the NFL. Meanwhile, a single Bitcoin is trading for about $62,500.
Then again, the fan reportedly agreed to return it in exchange for at least one other game ball and a signed jersey, so Brady’s Bitcoin offer is a bonus. The fan, 29-year-old Byron Kennedy, was in a field-side seat wearing Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans’ jersey when Evans surprised him by giving him the ball, CBS reported.
Plus, the Bucs are throwing in a bunch of other swag, according to a Tampa Bay Times reporter.
Not to mention, Bitcoin has rallied more than 1,000% from its low in March 2020, so who knows what the value of Brady’s gift will be by the end of the season.
