BITmarkets Publishes New Study Ranking the Top 10 Athletes in Crypto Partnerships

Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, August 17th, 2026, Chainwire

BITmarkets has published a new study, Crypto and Elite Athletes: More Than Just a Sponsorship, exploring what happened when crypto's rapid rise met the world of elite sport. From NFT collections and fan tokens to equity deals and salaries converted into bitcoin, the study looks behind the headlines at how some of the biggest names in sport became involved with digital assets.

Following its recent analysis of football clubs and competitions, BITmarkets has now shifted the focus from teams to individual athletes across football, basketball, American football, baseball and tennis. Rather than simply asking who signed the biggest deal, the study compares how the partnerships worked, what each athlete brought to them and how the market changed after 2022.

Which Athletes Made the Top 10?

The ranking brings together Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Shohei Ohtani, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Trevor Lawrence and Shaquille O'Neal, together with Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala. The familiar names, however, are only the start of the story. The full chart shows how differently the deals were built, from multi-year ambassador roles and NFT projects to venture investments, equity stakes and payments converted into crypto assets.