Bankless Why Pro Athletes Are Betting on Bitcoin, Crypto & Prediction Markets | Tristan Thompson & Paul Grewal
Oct 27, 2025
Tristan Thompson, NBA star and web3 entrepreneur, joins Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase, to discuss why athletes are embracing crypto. They explore the shift towards Bitcoin for financial control and the challenges of trusting traditional advisors. Paul shares insights on stablecoin rewards and regulatory battles, while Tristan introduces his innovative app, basketball.fun, which tokenizes NBA players. They delve into the implications of prediction markets versus sportsbooks and emphasize the need for transparency in crypto regulation.
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Convert Leisure Spend Into Crypto Learning
- For rookies, Tristan advises reallocating leisure spending into crypto—start small and learn by doing.
- He recommends opening a wallet and researching ETH, BTC, or stable-yield options instead of nightlife spending.
Match Crypto Strategy To Risk Appetite
- For veterans, Tristan says match allocations to risk appetite and consider safe stable yields for capital preservation.
- He explicitly recommends placing USDC into safe yield protocols offering roughly 8–12% when appropriate.
Genius Act Preserved Stablecoin Rewards
- Paul says the Genius Act intentionally preserved distributors' ability to pay stablecoin rewards to customers.
- He warns banks are now trying to undo that consumer benefit via new market-structure proposals.