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Mike Tyson's Love Affair with NFT and Crypto
By Shane Addinall Jul 23, 2021 EntertainmentDespite his raging bull reputation “Iron Mike” Tyson has matured into a smart businessman who has fallen in love with the scope and potential of blockchain technology, even launching his own NFT art portfolio next month.With his exceptional prowess in the boxing ring, his tribal face tattoo and infamously biting off the ear of Evander Holyfield in a 1997 title fight “Iron Mike” Tyson is not someone, you would think of as being tech or business-savvy. However, you could not be further from the truth.
As a smart businessman who surrounds himself with intelligent advisors and keeps his finger on the pulse of the latest trends in finance and technology. For those who don’t keep an eye on the legal cannabis sector, it may come as a surprise that the ex-boxer runs a successful cannabis product line under the label of Tyson Ranch.
He is also a longstanding fan of Bitcoin and recently began engaging with his community about the value and potential of Ethereum and NFTs.
Serial Crypto Entrepreneur
Tyson’s interest in Bitcoin is not a flash in the pan with the sports star turned crypto fan getting into business with a firm called Bitcoin Direct LLC back in 2015 when he was angling to have his own range of branded Bitcoin ATM’s.
While that deal itself petered out Tyson’s interest in the blockchain and cryptocurrencies did not. His simple tweet last week asking, “Which do you prefer, BTC or ETH?” garnered more than thirteen thousand responses.
One of the people to jump in on the question was Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor who responded saying:
“Mike, I spent more than a thousand hours considering this question and chose bitcoin. So far, I have purchased $2.9 billion in BTC because I think it’s the future of digital property.”
The official Baby Doge Coin account tried to grab Tyson’s attention and redirect the conversation to their animal welfare focused digital token by responding with a tongue-in-cheek “Mike let’s talk #BabyDoge”. Despite garnering thousands of likes and hundreds of responses to their comment the one person absent from their timeline this time round was Tyson himself.
It seems the crypto bug is biting in the most unexpected places with legendary rapper Busta Rhymes commenting on Tyson thread. Rhymes admitted he is just as interested in the pros and cons of Bitcoin versus Ethereum and had spent “the last 30 min reading the comment section” to get insight from the community.
The Art of Crypto
In anticipation of dropping his first-ever NFT art drop this coming August, Tyson has been on a veritable digital art shopping spree snapping animal paintings for himself and cute Pacman themed art for his kid.
Earlier this month A-list talent agency and NFT studio 1ofone tweeted out confirmation that Tyson had signed with them:
"1ofOne, the newest, most efficient full-service creative agency in the NFT space, is proud to announce its launch today. 1ofOne will be the exclusive NFT studio to develop the first official series of Mike Tyson NFT’s."
For his part, Tyson expressed his excitement over the announcement saying:
“The more I learn about NFT’s the more excited I am to be a part of the crypto/tech community. It’s the future and I chose to partner with 1ofone to help me navigate through the NFT community with something truly innovative and creative that tells a story about who I am.”
Tyson’s fans are in for a real treat as he has commissioned digital artist Cory Van Lew to create a series of NFT artworks depicting “iconic moments from his career”. The full collection will also include bonus unlockable content and other limited releases for fans to enjoy.
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