Mike Tyson, famous boxer and 58-year-old entrepreneur, has repeatedly expressed his support for Bitcoin and the bull crypto world.
The heavyweight champion from 1986 to 1990, engaged last Saturday in the match against Jake Paul, holds an extensive record of initiatives related to crypto activities.
Recently, several memecoins inspired by him have also spread. Furthermore, his name has appeared within the well-known prediction market Polymarket.
Let’s delve into everything below.
Mike Tyson and his relationship with crypto
Perhaps not everyone is aware, but the famous boxer Mike Tyson has a soft spot for Bitcoin and for crypto.
His interest and foresight towards this successful world date back even to 2013, when he invested in the cryptographic payments company BitPay.
When few people still knew the verb Bitcoin, the good “Iron Mike” was already funding activities that leverage the underlying technology.
Furthermore, as reported in a reel on YT by the influencer Marco Costanza, Tyson 9 years ago was collaborating with Bitcoin Direct LLC to launch a Bitcoin ATM in Las Vegas.
These ATMs allow the purchase of the orange coin in cash, contributing to the mainstream spread of this sector.
In recent years Mike Tyson has been involved in various alternative projects in the crypto world, which do not use Bitcoin but other digital currencies.
For example, in April 2024, the champion collaborated with Ready to Fight (RTF), a blockchain project that aims to revolutionize the world of boxing.
As an ambassador, Tyson has contributed to the visibility and popularity of the project, attracting combat enthusiasts to the bull and bear crypto platform.
In 2021, he also launched an NFT collection in his name, seizing various opportunities to increase his presence in the web3 collectibles sector.
It should also be noted how more than once the American giant has revealed its support towards the blockchain of Solana.
Already in 2021, he was asking his followers on CT who they preferred between the canonical smart contract network Ethereum and the next-generation network Solana.
Solana or Ethereum?
— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) September 9, 2021
Investments in Bitcoin and the memecoins inspired by Mike Tyson
For Mike Tyson, there are not only collaborations with emerging projects and infrastructures but also personal investments in Bitcoin and crypto.
In 2015 the legend of Boxing purchased Bitcoin for the first time, following the support towards the payment company BitPay.
We still do not know how many BTC the good Mike has bought, nor do we know if he has already sold them or if he is still a diamond hand today.
Taking a look at the historical price action of Bitcoin, we can, however, infer that it made an investment within the price range of 150-500 dollars.
His buy timing was excellent: just before the great bull phase of the 2016-2017 biennium, where Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of 20,000 dollars.
Arriving in our days, it is very interesting to highlight how recently various memecoin have been created that take the name of Mike Tyson.
Even though there is no element suggesting its participation in these coins, some of them have caught the attention of the general public.
The most well-known among those launched by the degen of the crypto world is TYSON, a memecoin of the Solana ecosystem that has recorded large trading volumes in the last month.
Its capitalization had also reached an excellent level on Friday, October 15, before crashing to 0 the following day.
Together with TYSON, on dexscreener we can find dozens of alternatives created by the community, most of which have little liquidity in the pools.
Paul vs Tyson: grandi scommesse registrate su Polymarket
The speculative interest in memecoins on Mike Tyson stems from the great media hype generated by the match against the YouTuber Jake Paul, who is also pro Bitcoin.
The two boxers were the protagonists of a great entertainment event last Saturday at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The meeting, which saw Jake Paul emerge 30 years younger than Mike Tyson, pushed sports betting production to the maximum.
Consider that within the Polymarket prediction market, bets for over 60 million dollars have been recorded.
The same platform that attracted billions of dollars for the USA elections was also used to bet on which of the two contenders would hold up better in the ring.
Despite Jake Paul being the favorite, Tyson attracted more than double the preferences for the event, reflecting his appeal to the community.
More closely we see how for the first one 15.9 million dollars were bet, while for Iron Mike over 32 million dollars.
Probably this ambiguity is due to the fact that the odds for Tyson were much lower compared to those for Paul, thus offering a potentially greater profit.
It is possible, however, that many crypto enthusiasts, noticing the renewed interest of the 58-year-old boxer in Bitcoin, have bet with their emotions.
Even though this time Tyson came out defeated from the match, he still remains one of the greatest champions in the world of boxing, as well as in the Bitcoin world.
We also remember that to fight the giant he earned 20 million dollars, in addition to the income from advertising sponsors.