5 Unexpected Celebrities Who Invest in Bitcoin

Plenty of celebrities have put their names to crypto projects that ended badly. These five have backed Bitcoin itself, some of them for over a decade.

Famous people tend to keep their investments private, but here are five you might not know are big into Bitcoin.

Tony Hawk

Legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk is one of Bitcoin’s early adopters. He bought his first bitcoin in 2012, after reading about it in the Silk Road era, and has held most of it since.

His interest goes beyond investing. His charity, The Skatepark Project (formerly the Tony Hawk Foundation), accepts donations in bitcoin.

Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, is known for his adventurous spirit and forward-thinking business moves.

In 2013, he announced that Virgin Galactic would accept bitcoin for its $250,000 space flights, and revealed he had bought some bitcoin himself. A year later, he backed BitPay, the Bitcoin payments processor, in what was then the largest funding round a Bitcoin company had ever raised.

Jay-Z

Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, is not just a musician but a savvy investor. In 2021, he teamed up with Jack Dorsey to launch ₿trust, a Bitcoin development fund seeded with 500 BTC, with an initial focus on supporting developers in Africa and India.

It’s a clear sign of his belief in Bitcoin as a tool for financial empowerment. Jay-Z has 99 problems but Bitcoin ain’t one.

Kieran Gibbs

Former Arsenal and England defender Kieran Gibbs started buying bitcoin in 2017. When he moved to David Beckham’s Inter Miami, he went a step further and chose to have half of his salary converted into bitcoin.

He has spoken about it as a way to protect his wealth against inflation, and about how Bitcoin opens up finance to people who don’t have a bank account.

Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter (now X) and Square (now Block), is probably the most prominent tech figure backing Bitcoin. He has long argued that it will become the internet’s native currency.

Under his leadership, Block has bought bitcoin for its balance sheet, built Bitcoin buying into Cash App and launched Bitkey, a Bitcoin hardware wallet.

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This is a guest blog. Views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of The Bitcoin Collective.

This article is for information and entertainment only and is not financial advice. Bitcoin is a volatile asset and its value can go down as well as up. Always do your own research and consider speaking to a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decisions.