Tennis star Naomi Osaka shows interest in Dogecoin, launches NFT

Naomi Osaka, a top professional tennis player from Japan, has been open about diversifying her investments in cryptocurrency after noticing the hype around Dogecoin (DOGE), which was primarily led by Elon Musk.

In a recent Bloomberg interview, Osaka revealed that she has been in talks with her agent about cryptocurrencies after reading about Dogecoin and its possibility to “pop up.”

The tennis legend attributed Twitter’s crypto ecosystem to be the primary source of her interest in Dogecoin investments, way before she spoke to her agent about it.

Osaka has also joined the nonfungible token (NFT) space by launching a collection of rare tokens before the start of the U.S. Open tournament.

Back in April, Osaka launched a six-piece collection of one-of-one NFTs in collaboration with her sister, Mari Osaka, which collectively sold for nearly $600,000. Out of the lot, the highest purchase amount for one NFT was $200,200, which currently stands as the most expensive sold by a professional tennis player.

Another major sport that has shown continued interest in NFT is soccer. Recently, the Paris Saint-Germain soccer team launched PSG fan tokens, which took off after legendary player Lionel Messi joined the club. Messi’s two-year contract with the club also reportedly includes PSG tokens as a part of his payment.

Related: Corporate brands target NFTs, and adoption continues to skyrocket

In addition to sports, major brands such as Budweiser and Visa have started to acquire NFTs as opposed to creating their own tokens. NFTs have also seen support from top entrepreneurs such as Mark Cuban, who invested in building “scalable AI infrastructure for NFTs.”

Mainstream musicians such as Kings of Leon are also involved in selling NFT-based albums, racking up over $2 million in sales. Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park was one of the earliest major label artists to release a single as an NFT.