Tom Brady got in a lot of trouble for his FTX involvement, although it appears he was scammed as well.
Tom Brady has been in the news a lot over the past year, and not necessarily for the best reasons. An athlete of his caliber is always talked about in media, and having a supermodel (ex)-wife will always keep your name in the headlines. However, Tom hasn't exactly been making news entirely for his football contributions.
To begin with, his football contributions haven't been noteworthy. He took some time off before the 2022 season. The season then turned into a failed campaign when the Buccaneers made the playoffs, doing so despite having a bad record. They were then defeated by the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs, the first time Tom lost to America's team in his long career.
There's the divorce from Gisele Bundchen, which has been discussed endlessly by the media by this point. Since then, however, the media has turned its vast attention to one of the odder stories in Tom's career. That is his intense and newfound interest in cryptocurrency.
A lot of celebrities are into cryptocurrency nowadays, a topic of interest that many critics believe is an economic fad. When FTX recently went bankrupt, a lot of critics pointed to the failed exchange as evidence of their point of view. Tom was one of FTX's biggest investors, and likewise, saw a large part of his net worth wiped out.
Here's everything to know about the Hall of Fame QB's involvement in the FTX meltdown, and just how much it cost Tom in the end.
Tom Brady's net worth isn't small. According to Barrons, Tom has a net worth of over $500 million. How much could some investments in a new but risky currency really cost the future hall of fame?
While Tom has multiple investments and interests regarding cryptocurrency, Tom's biggest mistake thus far has been his investment in a crypto company called FTX. It functioned as an exchange for cryptocurrency swaps, and other general internet-based exchanges. FTX was founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Zixiao Wang, and it quickly took off with huge base investments worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
As quickly as it blew up, however, it crashed back down to Earth. In late 2022, the company was heading in a direction many investors believed to be scandalous. Investigations into FTX would reveal that their finances were "poor", according to Bloomberg. It was then publicly revealed that the company was going bankrupt. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried would be arrested for "money laundering and fraud", according to The Verge, in one of the biggest fraud stories of all time.
Since then, many dominos have fallen that have completely reshaped the world of finance. One of these dominoes was the investment portfolio of Tom Brady, who had invested a lot into FTX.
Both Tom and Gisele were self-proclaimed brand ambassadors for FTX, and before their divorce, the two starred in a series of commercials for the company. The ads didn't get much attention, but they did appear during NFL games. One of their ads titled "Who Wants A Trade?" was aired during Super Bowl 56. Fans didn't seem to enthusiastic about the commercials, and since the shocking revelations about FTX came out, fans have mocked the ads on social media.
According to Forbes, Tom held over 1 million shares of FTX, which was worth a whopping $45 million. Gisele also invested in additional $25 million, meaning the couple totaled $70 million in overall investments. Since the company has gone bankrupt, it's going to be hard to know if or when Tom and Gisele will get their money back.
Since all of this happened, an attorney from Florida named Adam Moskowitz has called out FTX's endorsers. According to the Washington Post, Adam has specifically wanted Tom to pay up for leading investors to believe FTX was a safe company to begin with. That case is believed to still be ongoing, but nothing official has come out yet,
It's crazy to believe that a simple investment from Tom and Gisele would fall all the way to this. However, one person did try to warn them – Elon Musk.
That's right. Elon has been against a lot of crypto trends, opting instead for backing his own crypto companies. While Tom and Elon might be friends, Elon did make fun of FTX both before and after the bankruptcy. He tweeted memes about Sam Bankman-Fried after he was officially arrested.
Elon seems to have a lot of weird relationships with celebrities, and they've gotten even more bizarre since his takeover of Twitter. However, despite all the memes and jokes, Elon still seems to be buddies with Tom.
Tom and Gisele weren't the only celebrities involved with crypto lawsuits. Another athlete, the iconic baseball player David Ortiz, has also been sued for FTX endorsements. It's unknown how much he invested in the company, but he signed a multi-year deal with the exchange company before it melted down.
What's crazy is that, no matter how much this impacts David's net worth, it won't be the worst thing that's ever happened to the Boston slugger. David was famously attacked a few years ago and nearly passed away. However, he seems to be okay now, and 10 of 13 accused violators have been convicted in a Dominican prison.
Tom and David were involved in the same lawsuits regarding FTX. However, another lawsuit regarding NFTs has involved quite a number of celebrities. Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jimmy Fallon's names were legally cited in a case that alleges these celebrities "falsely promoted" the NFT brand Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Regardless of what happens, most of these celebrities will still be mega-millionaires once the dust clears. They'll still be famous, too. For instance, Gwyneth has gone viral lately due to her hairstyle comparisons with Hailey Bieber. Not many people have spoken about these lawsuits, and their reputations don't appear to be hurt. Tom's still breaking auction records, and if he doesn't retire, he'll continue breaking NFL records.
Raymond Eminizer is a freelance writer who has worked for websites such as Upwork and Freelancer.com.
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