Bitcoin and skateboarding are rooted in radical approaches to old ideas, so it’s no wonder that bitcoin was a perfect fit for the Tony Hawk Foundation.

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Adoption &amp; Community

Charity

skateboarding

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At first glance, bitcoin and skateboarding might have as little in common as those rare Buffalo nickels your one unmarried uncle collects and any other extreme sport, like snowboarding.&nbsp;



But the two have more in kind than you might think. Both highly stigmatized during their formative years (and even still), both intuitive approaches to old ways of doing things, bitcoin and skateboarding are both equal parts radical and disruptive. In 1950, skateboarding pioneers in Hawaii and California <a href="https://www.skatedeluxe.com/blog/en/wiki/skateboarding/history-of-skateboarding/#The-1950s">gave birth to the sport</a> by screwing wheels onto the underside of their surfboards during the off-season, when the ocean’s swell was too calm to surf.&nbsp;



These “asphalt surfers” or “sidewalk surfers” paved the way for what would become modern skateboarding. It was a novel and controversial approach to an ancient sport in surfing; in a similar vein, Bitcoin is a modern approach to the ancient practice of money management.



It’s at this intersection of the radical and progressive promises of both skateboarding and bitcoin that the <a href="https://tonyhawkfoundation.org/donate/">Tony Hawk Foundation</a> (THF) finds itself. Founded in 2002, the nonprofit's mission is simple: Build skateparks for the American youth. Over the past two decades, the THF has built some 620 skateparks in a bid to foster thriving skating communities in places that are often wanting for dedicated sites where skaters can hone their craft and share their hobby with others. These skateparks have become a refuge for some 6 million visitors annually, per <a href="https://tonyhawkfoundation.org/">THF</a>.



The Tony Hawk Foundation also <a href="https://tonyhawkfoundation.org/bitcoin/">began accepting bitcoin</a> in June 2019, and Tony Hawk, the legendary skateboarding pioneer who founded the organization, has been personally <a href="https://twitter.com/tonyhawk/status/1133858921595097088?lang=en">“riding the wave”</a> since 2013. Bitcoin was a good fit for the foundation for the reasons we examined above. And it has even exceeded the group’s expectations as a medium for raising funds.



“We’re excited to have Bitcoin donations as an option for our supporters,” <a href="http://www.mikivuckovich.com/about">Miki Vuckovich</a>, the executive director of the Tony Hawk Foundation, told Bitcoin Magazine. “As I said, we try to come to them as much as we can, and we know more and more of our supporters are using Bitcoin, so we want to stay ahead of the curve. Frankly, we didn’t expect to see any Bitcoin donations for a long time, and they started coming in within days of launching the option in June 2019.”



Vuckovich grew up skating with Hawk before launching his own career as a photographer for Thrasher and TransWorld SKATEboarding, which was followed by a traveling stint that expanded his subject matter as far as the architecture of the Soviet Union and the natural settings of Eastern Asia.



He’s also been skateboarding for 40 years, which puts him in the company of an old guard of skateboarders like Hawk who are living testaments that experience and zeal can compensate for advancing age.



Bitcoin Magazine sat down for a conversation with Vuckovich to talk about the origins of THF, where bitcoin fits into the mix and why the world’s first cryptocurrency is so damn appealing for the skating lifestyle.&nbsp;



<h2>A Need for Skateparks</h2>



What need is THF filling and what inspired Tony to establish the nonprofit?



Back in the ’70s when skateboarding was gaining traction, you had a wave of the first skateparks and they were all privately-owned and insured. They weren’t very good. They’d have these monster bowls that new skaters would drop into and hurt themselves. In the late ’70s, the insurance agencies all but gave up and raised rates and these parks started closing down. The last one in California closed in 1986.



I’d go to that skatepark after school and meet up with my friends, among them was Tony. Then we went our separate ways — he ended up touring professionally and I went to college to go on and work in skateboarding media. Through the years, I worked with a number of cities that were interested in getting skateparks built but there was no process for doing it.&nbsp;



It wasn’t until 1998 that California put skateboarding on a list on known hazardous activities that people participated in on public land (like football, hang gliding, cycling), and what this did was put responsibility on the user to do these things safely and on public land. That allowed cities to start building public skateparks. Early ones were Palo Alto, San Diego, Los Angeles. It took a few years, but people saw that there wasn’t this wave of lawsuits or fears of these parks injuring people like the old parks back in the ’70s, because skateboarding was different. Everything was better built.



As Tony toured around in 2001, he saw that many of these parks were built in wealthy suburban areas, and he realized that there were kids in more urban and challenged areas that didn’t have access to these parks. So he established the foundation in 2002 with the goal of creating more public skateparks, which was still a new idea at the time and trying to get them built where kids literally have nothing else to do.



Having both grown up with skateparks that helped us form lifelong friendships, we saw the value in recreating that sense of community. We’ve been working since 2002 and have built over 600 skateparks.



How does the grant process work? How do you select new locations to build?



Local communities of skaters will apply for individual grants. There are two grant cycles each year, with between 10 and 20 grants each.



We’re creating a model that allows the skaters themselves to be involved in the entire process, from fundraising to design, so that the skaters really have a sense of ownership and skin in the game. There are obviously adults involved, but we like to get the kids involved as much as possible.



Demographically, what does the donor base look like?&nbsp;



It’s all across the board. I’d say the middle of the bell curve are your mid-20s to late-40s, young parents, sometimes, who have younger kids who skate. Usually creative people in creative industries. A lot of support from tech industries, like in the Bay Area. We’re finding more and more of them coming from finance and banking — the Wall Street crew.&nbsp;



Some skateboarders from the ’80s and ’90s are finding themselves in interesting places, both in business and government (there was actually a former professional skateboarder in the Obama admistrations: Bob Pribble). And we’ve seen a broadening of that donor base, young and progressive-minded parents with kids who skateboard.&nbsp;



<h2>Building Skate Communities With Bitcoin</h2>



What was the thought process behind integrating bitcoin into the donations scheme?



The skateparks that we promote and our communities are pretty progressive spaces where kids can come, share ideas, connect. They’re as much social spaces as they are active recreational spaces. It’s still kind of a new idea even though we’ve been doing this for 20 years. It’s not as simple as just putting in a facility.&nbsp;



They really are these community centers where ideas are shared and there’s this sense of openness about it and I think that that progressiveness has an interesting parallel to bitcoin as a progressive currency and a new idea in how to exchange. Obviously, Tony is involved. We have a number of board members from the Bay Area who are plugged into it. So, once we were able to access donation tools through <a href="https://www.opennode.com/" target="_blank" aria-label="OpenNode (opens in a new tab)" rel="noreferrer noopener" class="rank-math-link">OpenNode</a> and BitPay, we were able to open a portal for Bitcoin people to support what we’re doing.



Are people using bitcoin for donations often? How often?



We launched the option in June 2019 and, at this point, have received several donations and it’s been ramping up. I think we peaked in the late fall. It’s becoming a more significant percentage of our donations.&nbsp;



We try to give people more options than just cash — you know, people can donate their cars or sell items on eBay. Bitcoin is another new option for donors because we know that the people who intuitively understand our work are much more likely to be using Bitcoin. We try to stay aware of where our supporters are and be aware of the methods of payments they plan to use.



So do you think there’s a fair degree of overlap between the Bitcoin and skateboarding cultures? There seems to be a lot of parallels: They’re both countercultures and there's an air of freedom and in some sense recklessness as well.



Yeah, I think that skateboarding is pretty disruptive. Public spaces are made for pedestrians and cars, but skaters come around and reinterpret those spaces. There’s a certain disruption that occurs with skateboarding. The skateparks are a reaction to that in a way. In some communities, the administrations see skateparks as a place where they can sequester skaters and relegate them to it. But the parks that we promote don’t involve fences and blend with the natural environment. We promote a model that doesn’t create the penitentiary feel. For us, it’s another option, because we know skaters will be out there skating in the natural world.



In the same way, governments and regulators don’t know what to do with Bitcoin. It has a similar ethos and reputation, so I think there are a lot of parallels in the nature of both.



For you personally, what would you like to see from the foundation going forward and is there anything you have in store for the future that excites you?



We’re about powering communities and helping to transform them so that they can respond to the needs of their youth, particularly skaters. We’re just working hard to promote that program and approach and reach more communities. We’re looking for progressive minds to help us on that path and help kids transform their communities and be leaders in shaping their own futures.

Bitcoin Magazine provides news, analysis, information, commentary and price data about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Magazine

Colin is an associate editor and staff writer for Bitcoin Magazine. He&#39;s proud to call Nashville his home, where he lives with his family and doesn&#39;t eat hot chicken as much as you might think.

Colin Harper

For the Tony Hawk Foundation, Bitcoin Is Radical

Bitcoin and skateboarding are rooted in radical approaches to old ideas, so it&rsquo;s no wonder that bitcoin was a perfect fit for the Tony Hawk Foundation.

At first glance, bitcoin and skateboarding might have as little in common as those rare Buffalo nickels your one unmarried uncle collects and any other extreme sport, like snowboarding.&nbsp; But the two have more in kind than you might think. Both highly stigmatized during their formative years (and even still), both intuitive approaches to old ways of doing things, bitcoin and skateboarding are both equal parts radical and disruptive. In 1950, skateboarding pioneers in Hawaii and California gave birth to the sport by screwing wheels onto the underside of their surfboards during the off-season, when the ocean&rsquo;s swell was too calm to surf.&nbsp; These &ldquo;asphalt surfers&rdquo; or &ldquo;sidewalk surfers&rdquo; paved the way for what would become modern skateboarding. It was a novel and controversial approach to an ancient sport in surfing; in a similar vein, Bitcoin is a modern approach to the ancient practice of money management. It&rsquo;s at this intersection of the radical and progressive promises of both skateboarding and bitcoin that the Tony Hawk Foundation (THF) finds itself. Founded in 2002, the nonprofit&#039;s mission is simple: Build skateparks for the American youth. Over the past two decades, the THF has built some 620 skateparks in a bid to foster thriving skating communities in places that are often wanting for dedicated sites where skaters can hone their craft and share their hobby with others. These skateparks have become a refuge for some 6 million visitors annually, per THF. The Tony Hawk Foundation also began accepting bitcoin in June 2019, and Tony Hawk, the legendary skateboarding pioneer who founded the organization, has been personally &ldquo;riding the wave&rdquo; since 2013. Bitcoin was a good fit for the foundation for the reasons we examined above. And it has even exceeded the group&rsquo;s expectations as a medium for raising funds. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re excited to have Bitcoin donations as an option for our supporters,&rdquo; Miki Vuckovich, the executive director of the Tony Hawk Foundation, told Bitcoin Magazine. &ldquo;As I said, we try to come to them as much as we can, and we know more and more of our supporters are using Bitcoin, so we want to stay ahead of the curve. Frankly, we didn&rsquo;t expect to see any Bitcoin donations for a long time, and they started coming in within days of launching the option in June 2019.&rdquo; Vuckovich grew up skating with Hawk before launching his own career as a photographer for Thrasher and TransWorld SKATEboarding, which was followed by a traveling stint that expanded his subject matter as far as the architecture of the Soviet Union and the natural settings of Eastern Asia. He&rsquo;s also been skateboarding for 40 years, which puts him in the company of an old guard of skateboarders like Hawk who are living testaments that experience and zeal can compensate for advancing age. Bitcoin Magazine sat down for a conversation with Vuckovich to talk about the origins of THF, where bitcoin fits into the mix and why the world&rsquo;s first cryptocurrency is so damn appealing for the skating lifestyle.&nbsp; A Need for Skateparks. What need is THF filling and what inspired Tony to establish the nonprofit? Back in the &rsquo;70s when skateboarding was gaining traction, you had a wave of the first skateparks and they were all privately-owned and insured. They weren&rsquo;t very good. They&rsquo;d have these monster bowls that new skaters would drop into and hurt themselves. In the late &rsquo;70s, the insurance agencies all but gave up and raised rates and these parks started closing down. The last one in California closed in 1986. I&rsquo;d go to that skatepark after school and meet up with my friends, among them was Tony. Then we went our separate ways &mdash; he ended up touring professionally and I went to college to go on and work in skateboarding media. Through the years, I worked with a number of cities that were interested in getting skateparks built but there was no process for doing it.&nbsp; It wasn&rsquo;t until 1998 that California put skateboarding on a list on known hazardous activities that people participated in on public land (like football, hang gliding, cycling), and what this did was put responsibility on the user to do these things safely and on public land. That allowed cities to start building public skateparks. Early ones were Palo Alto, San Diego, Los Angeles. It took a few years, but people saw that there wasn&rsquo;t this wave of lawsuits or fears of these parks injuring people like the old parks back in the &rsquo;70s, because skateboarding was different. Everything was better built. As Tony toured around in 2001, he saw that many of these parks were built in wealthy suburban areas, and he realized that there were kids in more urban and challenged areas that didn&rsquo;t have access to these parks. So he established the foundation in 2002 with the goal of creating more public skateparks, which was still a new idea at the time and trying to get them built where kids literally have nothing else to do. Having both grown up with skateparks that helped us form lifelong friendships, we saw the value in recreating that sense of community. We&rsquo;ve been working since 2002 and have built over 600 skateparks. How does the grant process work? How do you select new locations to build? Local communities of skaters will apply for individual grants. There are two grant cycles each year, with between 10 and 20 grants each. We&rsquo;re creating a model that allows the skaters themselves to be involved in the entire process, from fundraising to design, so that the skaters really have a sense of ownership and skin in the game. There are obviously adults involved, but we like to get the kids involved as much as possible. Demographically, what does the donor base look like?&nbsp; It&rsquo;s all across the board. I&rsquo;d say the middle of the bell curve are your mid-20s to late-40s, young parents, sometimes, who have younger kids who skate. Usually creative people in creative industries. A lot of support from tech industries, like in the Bay Area. We&rsquo;re finding more and more of them coming from finance and banking &mdash; the Wall Street crew.&nbsp; Some skateboarders from the &rsquo;80s and &rsquo;90s are finding themselves in interesting places, both in business and government (there was actually a former professional skateboarder in the Obama admistrations: Bob Pribble). And we&rsquo;ve seen a broadening of that donor base, young and progressive-minded parents with kids who skateboard.&nbsp; Building Skate Communities With Bitcoin. What was the thought process behind integrating bitcoin into the donations scheme? The skateparks that we promote and our communities are pretty progressive spaces where kids can come, share ideas, connect. They&rsquo;re as much social spaces as they are active recreational spaces. It&rsquo;s still kind of a new idea even though we&rsquo;ve been doing this for 20 years. It&rsquo;s not as simple as just putting in a facility.&nbsp; They really are these community centers where ideas are shared and there&rsquo;s this sense of openness about it and I think that that progressiveness has an interesting parallel to bitcoin as a progressive currency and a new idea in how to exchange. Obviously, Tony is involved. We have a number of board members from the Bay Area who are plugged into it. So, once we were able to access donation tools through OpenNode and BitPay, we were able to open a portal for Bitcoin people to support what we&rsquo;re doing. Are people using bitcoin for donations often? How often? We launched the option in June 2019 and, at this point, have received several donations and it&rsquo;s been ramping up. I think we peaked in the late fall. It&rsquo;s becoming a more significant percentage of our donations.&nbsp; We try to give people more options than just cash &mdash; you know, people can donate their cars or sell items on eBay. Bitcoin is another new option for donors because we know that the people who intuitively understand our work are much more likely to be using Bitcoin. We try to stay aware of where our supporters are and be aware of the methods of payments they plan to use. So do you think there&rsquo;s a fair degree of overlap between the Bitcoin and skateboarding cultures? There seems to be a lot of parallels: They&rsquo;re both countercultures and there&#039;s an air of freedom and in some sense recklessness as well. Yeah, I think that skateboarding is pretty disruptive. Public spaces are made for pedestrians and cars, but skaters come around and reinterpret those spaces. There&rsquo;s a certain disruption that occurs with skateboarding. The skateparks are a reaction to that in a way. In some communities, the administrations see skateparks as a place where they can sequester skaters and relegate them to it. But the parks that we promote don&rsquo;t involve fences and blend with the natural environment. We promote a model that doesn&rsquo;t create the penitentiary feel. For us, it&rsquo;s another option, because we know skaters will be out there skating in the natural world. In the same way, governments and regulators don&rsquo;t know what to do with Bitcoin. It has a similar ethos and reputation, so I think there are a lot of parallels in the nature of both. For you personally, what would you like to see from the foundation going forward and is there anything you have in store for the future that excites you? We&rsquo;re about powering communities and helping to transform them so that they can respond to the needs of their youth, particularly skaters. We&rsquo;re just working hard to promote that program and approach and reach more communities. We&rsquo;re looking for progressive minds to help us on that path and help kids transform their communities and be leaders in shaping their own futures.

Colin is an associate editor and staff writer for Bitcoin Magazine. He's proud to call Nashville his home, where he spends his days shouting at peddle taverns and trying to find affordable parking downtown. If it wasn't already obvious, he holds bitcoin.

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Kanye West, Ashton Kutcher and Mike Tyson are bitcoiners. Just some celebrities that Bitcoin counts among supporters at the center of pop culture.

10 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Own Bitcoin - Bitcoin Magazine

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50 cent

ashton kutcher

celebrity

elon musk

kanye west

michelle phan

mike tyson

russell okung

$20 bill

2018 interview

anime girls

ben horowitz

Bitcoin used to be synonymous with drugs but now, celebrities of all stripes are turning on to what used to be the obscure money of choice for the internet’s black markets.



For instance, what if I told you that a certain Grammy-caliber rapper has accepted bitcoin for an album in 2014? 50 Cent did, and he’s just one example of the prestige Bitcoin enjoys among the movers and shakers who are at the center of Western pop culture. Here are a few examples.



<h2>Kanye West&nbsp;</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/C81v6KMfRNsJhPssnk4FGVtXI576duSaKwdxwtAGvvdYGeXE2Xna_7yE9N5_Mpa9ffL63JlQ5DFSTZAqGuJme9IibZ9fbV24FVK6iuzs-tadncDZWPj_1BkiuLBPswG2Yv5Grk4f" alt=""/><figcaption>Image by Peter Hutchins from DC - Kanye West - Kanye Omari West, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74382870">CC BY 2.0</a></figcaption></figure>



Yes, Yeezy himself has taken interest in bitcoin (he also sued a project that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinye">created the altcoin Coinye</a> for trademark infringement, but that’s for another story).



One of rap’s most prolific artists and producers, Kanye spoke briefly about Bitcoin in a May 2018 interview with radio personality Charlamagne. He mentioned Bitcoin twice in the interview, the second and most notable time in reference to Harriet Tubman’s becoming the new face of the $20 bill.



“That was the moment that I wanted to use Bitcoin, when I saw Harriet Tubman on a $20 bill,” he said, espousing his belief that society needs to be looking toward the future instead of the past to encourage progress.



Shortly before this interview, West famously tweeted out “decentralize,” a standalone nod to the cryptocurrency industry that its adherents treated like manna sent down from heaven.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989184815340535808?lang=en
</div></figure>



Kanye has since remained relatively silent about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, though his tweet and 15 seconds of bitcoin commentary in the 2018 interview have become meme relics for the community.



<h2>Ashton Kutcher&nbsp;</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/y_z95k5XLuUwZd3J-BqcmW3prmucqMxjNWfAmPy_0Qb5eybxgH6U4eGRp-2jlrtqDhcBYyoLnT04PskE7sZgkINKadj-ZTVlqBtGfEbmij677nUNMkW5GTMn7kw3AXuSm1myYT0m" alt=""/><figcaption>Image by TechCrunch - Flickr: 114468695AP030_TechCrunch_D, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33100955">CC BY 2.0</a>,</figcaption></figure>



’90s heartthrob Ashton Kutcher is best known for his roles in That ‘70s Show and Dude, Where’s My Car?, but he’s also one of Bitcoin’s chief proponents among the Hollywood Hills elite.&nbsp;



“I think bitcoins are obviously becoming more and more relevant,” <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/100696230">he said</a> in a talk at the 2013 TechCrunch Disrupt Conference.



“The fact that people are hacking bitcoins really hard,” he continued referring to wallet and exchange hacks, “it almost hearkens back to when banks first started and they didn't have safe safes and people were going into the banks and just robbing money out of the safe. It actually validates the value of the money itself. I think the fact that you can buy drugs and ammo with it actually [validates] the currency itself.”



Of course, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/ashton-kutcher-gave-ellen-degeneres-ripples-xrp-for-charity.html">Kutcher also donated $4 million worth of XRP</a> to Ellen Degeneres’ wildlife charity fund in 2018, so that might put him on the pooh-pooh list for some toxic maximalists. But notice that he spent XRP while hodling his bitcoin — looks like he might just “get it.”



<h2>William Shatner&nbsp;</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/vtgoOYvrdnnA2JLgWB63tuzOmzyuYu5OF_eTpMGYnqZU6Qny2Igl8Y_G1zOLeGfol_xHDRq57F340K1KXDFKJ_W9puwADOP-8pf5m4QdK5DLuQe6WoPJy23vcnl_PUWzBVRcsVd6" alt=""/><figcaption>Image by McFadden, Strauss, Eddy &amp; Irwin (public relations firm) for Desilu Productions. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20207393">Public Domain</a>,</figcaption></figure>



Captain Kirk’s is reaching for the stars yet again.



While at first a Bitcoin skeptic (he once rhetorically <a href="https://twitter.com/williamshatner/status/418970342351073280?lang=en">tweeted</a>, “So bit coin is a cyber snob currency…”) the retired Star Trek actor entered the space in the 2017 ICO boom (which, admittedly, has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2019/06/20/william-shatners-startup-brings-new-meaning-to-enterprise-ethereum/#515ed1064c1f">led to some enterprise blockchain fantasies</a>).&nbsp;



He’s a bit of an ETH-head really, but he's also <a href="http://www.solaralliance.com/press_release/powering-the-blockchain-revolution-solar-alliance-to-develop-solar-powered-cryptocurrency-mining-facilities/">involved himself with Solar Alliance</a>, a Vancouver-based company which operates a solar-powered bitcoin mining farm in Illinois.&nbsp;



<h2>Michelle Phan</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/PD93BY6JlbV0q4IgebwV26IiuqIMeOlweVbqGXiLSGlkhGkdrGFzmO-4SZdAf1Tg31UaUm3fJOlmBOKUGoWdZrf7IR4LrDfZN_kJ4SkEmVb9fN2omoWYJXetO_EEWueaTGjcZIkA" alt=""/><figcaption>Michelle Phan on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N3QQXxZ1SQ">YouTube</a></figcaption></figure>



Surprisingly, most of the celebrities on this list became interested in bitcoin during the first big hype cycle in 2013 to 2014. Michelle Phan, though, is a new initiate — or, at the very least, she’s recently come out as a bitcoin supporter.



“This is why bitcoin and crypto and decentralization is the next wave. It’s the most important evolution of the internet,” the YouTube Influencer and makeup entrepreneur <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWBEG0aQRZA">said</a> recently on the “Off the Pill” podcast.



When she’s not building her multimillion dollar makeup empire, she’ll drop the occasional tidbit about bitcoin on Twitter or other <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/c3sej5/michelle_phan_posting_about_bitcoin_to_her_2m/">social media</a> platforms.



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https://twitter.com/MichellePhan/status/1142491828928704512
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<h2>Mike Tyson&nbsp;</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/XKYSBltqp2UCw9_LW4Pryl02lyg_y0EYTpenxHVFuYygoUZyg2Zp7NUOW0DbmTUHaPBNEV5K7eQLh9dbt_4Rfhk3sbwx60vtEDwThI2Cp8ULTIId10rBbWLwqBPwhyf_HFEG4cEW" alt=""/><figcaption>Image by Eduardo Merille - Mike Tyson Cropped from original image., <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15204524">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></figcaption></figure>



The Baddest Man on the Planet — and former heavyweight boxing champion of the world — is a bitcoiner.



Tyson <a href="http://fightland.vice.com/blog/mike-tyson-launches-the-first-of-100-branded-bitcoin-atms-in-las-vegas">launched his own line of bitcoin ATMs</a> in Las Vegas in 2015. The name of the ATM line is Mike Tyson Bitcoin (maybe he forgot to hire a marketing team), each unit of which is aptly branded with his famous facial tattoo.&nbsp;



“People don’t really understand a currency based on numerical equations. I personally still don’t … but I’m grateful to be a part of the revolution and hoping that my participation in this space will lead to more conversations and help increase knowledge and awareness,” <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/mike-tyson-im-grateful-to-be-part-of-the-bitcoin-revolution">he told CoinDesk</a> in a 2015 interview.



<h2>Tony Hawk</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-vc7iK69N3_sCJTaIWX5q__-99Fy8Hx5N6vm-LCaeBJxf23NmP8cMnFMZekVqLA_sD6uJ-G5ANFURQfzdbv1kxNvFTWDsLDOeu5DLtMIARLXL_9BY56Lk9OuWo3A07usj6GohUXS" alt=""/><figcaption>Image by Stuart Sevastos - BDO Vert Skate Jam @ McCallum Park (5/2/2012), <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23471318">CC BY 2.0</a></figcaption></figure>



The godfather of skateboarding has been “riding [bitcoin] for 6 years,” <a href="https://twitter.com/tonyhawk/status/1133858921595097088?lang=en">he revealed</a> in a 2019 reply tweet asking if it’d be fun to ride the most recent price rise.



“Haven’t bailed yet,” the king of vert wrote in the tweet.



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https://twitter.com/tonyhawk/status/1133858921595097088
</div></figure>



His nonprofit, the Tony Hawk Foundation, <a href="https://tonyhawkfoundation.org/bitpay/">accepts bitcoin</a> as well.



<h2>Elon Musk&nbsp;</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/a1GQVxRVilp_PPL0bQoAXX55cMAIuS2ObcEDQgg-vOGWlcpPru4Hedj7JenTga_iPFtSPd80D09rpfRmSYv4IkcKDRXliWzHKEB5mDPr1Iwwgtb3qefPpHhKAMnSJSpBGWq-B6m7" alt=""/><figcaption>Image by JD Lasica from Pleasanton, CA, US - Elon Musk, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68478030">CC BY 2.0</a>,&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>



When he’s not building the future, Elon Musk might be getting sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or talking about anime girls — or talking about bitcoin (OR, as in an especially unique cases, combining bitcoin with anime girls … seriously).



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1054520588734058496
</div></figure>



<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/news/tesla-billionaire-elon-musk-reveals-how-much-bitcoin-he-owns/">The futurist has publicly stated</a> that he doesn’t own more than 0.25 bitcoin. But maybe that’s just good op-sec. He certainly buys into the concept of cryptocurrency, having called Bitcoin’s design “brilliant” <a href="https://ark-invest.com/research/podcast/elon-musk-podcast">in an ARK Invest podcast</a> with the firm’s CEO, Cathie Wood.



“Paper money is going away. And crypto is a far better way to transfer values than a piece of paper, that’s for sure,” he said during the podcast.



<h2>Russell Okung&nbsp;</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/ZfABfUZ9uTLEgvHzRG7dWox2jW1ffWEhPPsEEFw45DLtijMqV8a7dkSuLvuC_otOp6xK58NKn9_DYsilQvH1ZA7HWG-CgGeIQpO1QHa013DFX1lHq4kJpQvFoZzdhK0JvH3fT8vl" alt=""/><figcaption>Image by Jeffrey Beall - Own work, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52291084">CC BY 4.0</a></figcaption></figure>



LA Chargers left tackle has recently become a darling of the Bitcoin community for his passionate advocacy of the currency.



Making something of his virtual debut into the space, he famously (well, famously among us, anyway) requested on Twitter to have his salary paid in bitcoin.



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https://twitter.com/RussellOkung/status/1128149326943834113
</div></figure>



Of course, he made this request in person as well, to which the Charger’s money guy responded “What the hell is bitcoin?” <a href="https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/the-nfls-russell-okung-wont-stop-until-hes-paid-in-bitcoin">When I interviewed him</a> back in September, he said that he’s tried to win over management multiple times and will keep trying.



That’s the kind of indefatigable resolve you might expect from a top-tier athlete. Since making his love of bitcoin public, Okung has dived deep. On September 1, 2019, he held the inaugural <a href="https://www.bitcoinis.com/">Bitcoin Is_</a> event, a “revival,” he told me, which he hopes will have numerous incarnations to increase adoption and awareness.



“Bitcoin feels like a renaissance, the great awakening or enlightenment, and that’s what we’re trying to capture,” he said in the interview.



<h2>50 Cent</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/BuXfMz59l8O-PpZfqe4_bAq24euBZicla4ImpQS1Ir3ZtntbpuWZ2ikg6UopR4D5jlB9Q5GuckQNBLMt2hfyF9hGnJffwsIw0SRNEcZj835-FrS7bb4kH-VpTrsfbNIVy0xwPeXh" alt=""/><figcaption>Image by Alex Const - originally posted to Flickr as 50 Cent, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8844920">CC BY 2.0</a></figcaption></figure>



Adding to an already lucrative career, renowned rapper 50 Cent <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/24/580259163/50-cent-i-forgot-taking-700-bitcoins-for-2014-album-stake-is-now-worth-millions">accidently made millions in bitcoin</a> — by selling an album for the cryptocurrency, holding it and forgetting about it.



His 2014 album, Animal Ambition, garnered the rap star 700 bitcoin. Just before bitcoin’s value began to deflate at the beginning of 2018 following the 2017 bull run, this sum was worth just north of $7 million.



In a since deleted tweet (probably erased for security reasons), he celebrated the accidental hodl. “Not bad for a kid from the South Side,” he wrote at the time.&nbsp;



<h2>Nas</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/WnZZIjCr3VSPI-sCSSts1wEuoTlqGhC74wNGUvpCKcXdDj1j7K4Fc67xdEwVXDeawTnnShQLe4NZHi_Bzs0Hd92_0F_I66DO1CEQdeYhm1KmfvOo4eEpeIQM4RPK87cAEuSRNUk_" alt=""/><figcaption>Image by Max Goldberg - https://www.flickr.com/photos/48542161@N04/28146917221/, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76788269">CC BY 2.0</a></figcaption></figure>



Nasir Jones, better known by his rap pen name Nas, dropped the rap act to begin a new life as a Silicon Valley tech VC.&nbsp;



In 2014, when bitcoin was San Fran’s hot new thing, this included investing in a startup called Coinbase. He learned about bitcoin through Andreesen Horowitz Co-Founder Ben Horowitz.“[Bitcoin] will evolve into an industry as big, if not bigger, than the internet. My man Ben Horowitz really opened my eyes to that point. This isn’t of the internet age, bitcoin is its own age,” he said in an <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/hip-hop-icon-nas-coinbase-age-of-bitcoin">interview</a> at the time.

10 Celebrities You Didn&rsquo;t Know Own Bitcoin &raquo; Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin used to be synonymous with drugs but now, celebrities of all stripes are turning on to what used to be the obscure money of choice for the internet&rsquo;s black markets. For instance, what if I told you that a certain Grammy-caliber rapper has accepted bitcoin for an album in 2014? 50 Cent did, and he&rsquo;s just one example of the prestige Bitcoin enjoys among the movers and shakers who are at the center of Western pop culture. Here are a few examples. Kanye West&nbsp; Image by Peter Hutchins from DC - Kanye West - Kanye Omari West, CC BY 2.0 Yes, Yeezy himself has taken interest in bitcoin (he also sued a project that created the altcoin Coinye for trademark infringement, but that&rsquo;s for another story). One of rap&rsquo;s most prolific artists and producers, Kanye spoke briefly about Bitcoin in a May 2018 interview with radio personality Charlamagne. He mentioned Bitcoin twice in the interview, the second and most notable time in reference to Harriet Tubman&rsquo;s becoming the new face of the $20 bill. &ldquo;That was the moment that I wanted to use Bitcoin, when I saw Harriet Tubman on a $20 bill,&rdquo; he said, espousing his belief that society needs to be looking toward the future instead of the past to encourage progress. Shortly before this interview, West famously tweeted out &ldquo;decentralize,&rdquo; a standalone nod to the cryptocurrency industry that its adherents treated like manna sent down from heaven. https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989184815340535808?lang=en Kanye has since remained relatively silent about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, though his tweet and 15 seconds of bitcoin commentary in the 2018 interview have become meme relics for the community. Ashton Kutcher&nbsp; Image by TechCrunch - Flickr: 114468695AP030_TechCrunch_D, CC BY 2.0, &rsquo;90s heartthrob Ashton Kutcher is best known for his roles in That &lsquo;70s Show and Dude, Where&rsquo;s My Car?, but he&rsquo;s also one of Bitcoin&rsquo;s chief proponents among the Hollywood Hills elite.&nbsp; &ldquo;I think bitcoins are obviously becoming more and more relevant,&rdquo; he said in a talk at the 2013 TechCrunch Disrupt Conference. &ldquo;The fact that people are hacking bitcoins really hard,&rdquo; he continued referring to wallet and exchange hacks, &ldquo;it almost hearkens back to when banks first started and they didn&#039;t have safe safes and people were going into the banks and just robbing money out of the safe. It actually validates the value of the money itself. I think the fact that you can buy drugs and ammo with it actually [validates] the currency itself.&rdquo; Of course, Kutcher also donated $4 million worth of XRP to Ellen Degeneres&rsquo; wildlife charity fund in 2018, so that might put him on the pooh-pooh list for some toxic maximalists. But notice that he spent XRP while hodling his bitcoin &mdash; looks like he might just &ldquo;get it.&rdquo; William Shatner&nbsp; Image by McFadden, Strauss, Eddy &amp; Irwin (public relations firm) for Desilu Productions. Public Domain, Captain Kirk&rsquo;s is reaching for the stars yet again. While at first a Bitcoin skeptic (he once rhetorically tweeted, &ldquo;So bit coin is a cyber snob currency&hellip;&rdquo;) the retired Star Trek actor entered the space in the 2017 ICO boom (which, admittedly, has led to some enterprise blockchain fantasies).&nbsp; He&rsquo;s a bit of an ETH-head really, but he&#039;s also involved himself with Solar Alliance, a Vancouver-based company which operates a solar-powered bitcoin mining farm in Illinois.&nbsp; Michelle Phan. Michelle Phan on YouTube Surprisingly, most of the celebrities on this list became interested in bitcoin during the first big hype cycle in 2013 to 2014. Michelle Phan, though, is a new initiate &mdash; or, at the very least, she&rsquo;s recently come out as a bitcoin supporter. &ldquo;This is why bitcoin and crypto and decentralization is the next wave. It&rsquo;s the most important evolution of the internet,&rdquo; the YouTube Influencer and makeup entrepreneur said recently on the &ldquo;Off the Pill&rdquo; podcast. When she&rsquo;s not building her multimillion dollar makeup empire, she&rsquo;ll drop the occasional tidbit about bitcoin on Twitter or other social media platforms. https://twitter.com/MichellePhan/status/1142491828928704512 Mike Tyson&nbsp; Image by Eduardo Merille - Mike Tyson Cropped from original image., CC BY-SA 2.0 The Baddest Man on the Planet &mdash; and former heavyweight boxing champion of the world &mdash; is a bitcoiner. Tyson launched his own line of bitcoin ATMs in Las Vegas in 2015. The name of the ATM line is Mike Tyson Bitcoin (maybe he forgot to hire a marketing team), each unit of which is aptly branded with his famous facial tattoo.&nbsp; &ldquo;People don&rsquo;t really understand a currency based on numerical equations. I personally still don&rsquo;t &hellip; but I&rsquo;m grateful to be a part of the revolution and hoping that my participation in this space will lead to more conversations and help increase knowledge and awareness,&rdquo; he told CoinDesk in a 2015 interview. Tony Hawk. Image by Stuart Sevastos - BDO Vert Skate Jam @ McCallum Park (5/2/2012), CC BY 2.0 The godfather of skateboarding has been &ldquo;riding [bitcoin] for 6 years,&rdquo; he revealed in a 2019 reply tweet asking if it&rsquo;d be fun to ride the most recent price rise. &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t bailed yet,&rdquo; the king of vert wrote in the tweet. https://twitter.com/tonyhawk/status/1133858921595097088 His nonprofit, the Tony Hawk Foundation, accepts bitcoin as well. Elon Musk&nbsp; Image by JD Lasica from Pleasanton, CA, US - Elon Musk, CC BY 2.0,&nbsp; When he&rsquo;s not building the future, Elon Musk might be getting sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or talking about anime girls &mdash; or talking about bitcoin (OR, as in an especially unique cases, combining bitcoin with anime girls &hellip; seriously). https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1054520588734058496 The futurist has publicly stated that he doesn&rsquo;t own more than 0.25 bitcoin. But maybe that&rsquo;s just good op-sec. He certainly buys into the concept of cryptocurrency, having called Bitcoin&rsquo;s design &ldquo;brilliant&rdquo; in an ARK Invest podcast with the firm&rsquo;s CEO, Cathie Wood. &ldquo;Paper money is going away. And crypto is a far better way to transfer values than a piece of paper, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; he said during the podcast. Russell Okung&nbsp; Image by Jeffrey Beall - Own work, CC BY 4.0 LA Chargers left tackle has recently become a darling of the Bitcoin community for his passionate advocacy of the currency. Making something of his virtual debut into the space, he famously (well, famously among us, anyway) requested on Twitter to have his salary paid in bitcoin. https://twitter.com/RussellOkung/status/1128149326943834113 Of course, he made this request in person as well, to which the Charger&rsquo;s money guy responded &ldquo;What the hell is bitcoin?&rdquo; When I interviewed him back in September, he said that he&rsquo;s tried to win over management multiple times and will keep trying. That&rsquo;s the kind of indefatigable resolve you might expect from a top-tier athlete. Since making his love of bitcoin public, Okung has dived deep. On September 1, 2019, he held the inaugural Bitcoin Is_ event, a &ldquo;revival,&rdquo; he told me, which he hopes will have numerous incarnations to increase adoption and awareness. &ldquo;Bitcoin feels like a renaissance, the great awakening or enlightenment, and that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re trying to capture,&rdquo; he said in the interview. 50 Cent. Image by Alex Const - originally posted to Flickr as 50 Cent, CC BY 2.0 Adding to an already lucrative career, renowned rapper 50 Cent accidently made millions in bitcoin &mdash; by selling an album for the cryptocurrency, holding it and forgetting about it. His 2014 album, Animal Ambition, garnered the rap star 700 bitcoin. Just before bitcoin&rsquo;s value began to deflate at the beginning of 2018 following the 2017 bull run, this sum was worth just north of $7 million. In a since deleted tweet (probably erased for security reasons), he celebrated the accidental hodl. &ldquo;Not bad for a kid from the South Side,&rdquo; he wrote at the time.&nbsp; Nas. Image by Max Goldberg - https://www.flickr.com/photos/48542161@N04/28146917221/, CC BY 2.0 Nasir Jones, better known by his rap pen name Nas, dropped the rap act to begin a new life as a Silicon Valley tech VC.&nbsp; In 2014, when bitcoin was San Fran&rsquo;s hot new thing, this included investing in a startup called Coinbase. He learned about bitcoin through Andreesen Horowitz Co-Founder Ben Horowitz.&ldquo;[Bitcoin] will evolve into an industry as big, if not bigger, than the internet. My man Ben Horowitz really opened my eyes to that point. This isn&rsquo;t of the internet age, bitcoin is its own age,&rdquo; he said in an interview at the time.

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For the Tony Hawk Foundation, Bitcoin Is Radical. And That’s the Point

10 Celebrities Who Are Totally Into Bitcoin