Alex Crognale, a defender for the USL Championship club Birmingham Legion, has gone public with his association with bitcoin and cryptocurrency payroll service Bitwage. In early September, Crognale received 15% of his USL paycheck in bitcoin. The USL is the second-largest soccer league in the United States and Crognale's move is a first for the league.

The move is reminiscent of spring 2021 when professional soccer player Achara Ifunanyachi – a forward for Toronto FC – went public with his Bitcoin payroll allocation, also with Bitwage.

Over the course of the pandemic, Crognale states that he “became increasingly interested in [bitcoin’s] store of value properties.” His background in economics encouraged him to do a deeper dive on what was happening behind the scenes in regards to monetary policy.

“The United States Federal Reserve responded to the damaging impact of COVID-19 lockdowns by printing massive amounts of US dollars,” he said. “The more stimulus money pumped into the economy, the less the dollars in our pockets are worth. Quantitative easing was necessary to keep our country from falling into a depression, but the long term impact was understated, if mentioned at all.”

When looking at Bitcoin, Crognale saw a panacea to the country’s financial ills: “The predictable supply of Bitcoin makes it resistant to inflation, and not in the control of any one entity or government body.”

In order to get more serious about his bitcoin journey, Crognale knew that he needed to find a dependable system for investing.

“I have been buying Bitcoin since 2020 using various exchanges, Coinbase, Binance, CashApp, I’ve tried them all. The Bitwage platform allows me to dollar-cost average into Bitcoin with ease and without transaction fees,” he said. “I have a percentage of my salary paid in cryptocurrency that is direct-deposited into my wallet.”

Crognale stated that by making this move public, he hopes to inspire others.

“If I can help educate or inspire someone in my shoes to take control of their wealth and put it into sound money, Bitcoin specifically, I want to take that opportunity to share my story.”

[header image credit: Bitcoin Magazine]