The move to embrace cryptocurrency is gaining momentum in football

Ex-Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs has explained why he has converted part of his current Inter Miami salary to Bitcoin and joined other football players in embracing cryptocurrency investment.

Gibbs, now likely in the back-end of his career in MLS, wants to protect his wealth against inflation by putting some of his money in an alternative asset.

And while he has resisted telling others to follow his lead, he has suggested he won't be the last to convert his salary to Bitcoin.

"You start from the beginning - before we discovered gold - and you read through history, it just fascinated me," Gibbs said to the Daily Mail. "It's a very powerful technology.

"Without getting too deep, look at how many people in the world don't have access to a bank account. The fact that all you need is internet and a smart phone [for cryptocurrency].

"Then, you're instantly given access to probably two billion people, to services that obviously we're so used to, but a fifth of the planet aren't.

"If I was to get paid in dollars for the next three years, the way the economy is at the moment, I'm going to lose around 10 per cent of that a year [through inflation]. But my contract doesn't increase."

Gibbs went on to say he likely wouldn't be the last to convert salary to Bitcoin before saying: "I would never tell someone what to do. But, by me announcing something, at least it makes people aware. And then they can at least get educated on it."

Will this become a trend?
Converting salary to Bitcoin is a simpler approach to cryptocurrency than many football players have taken. Rather than diving into the murky world of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Gibbs has directly invested in a fungible alternative currency.

He's far from the first player to receive cryptocurrency benefits, as even Lionel Messi received a cryptocurrency bonus in his Paris Saint-Germain contract last summer.

A prominent U.S.-based player representative told GOAL last year that his clients have requested crash courses on cryptocurrency. He said he expects some will become involved in the market in the coming years.

So despite massive fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin on a month-to-month basis, Gibbs is likely an early adopter in a trend that will continue in the coming years.