NOIDA (CoinChapter.com)—NBA All-Star Tyrese Haliburton said he is not averse to investing in cryptocurrencies and has had interaction with Ethereum through NFTs.
The NBA star was speaking at the Coinbase Moonshot event, sharing the stage with 2024 NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion Mac McClung.
The ETH/USD pair has had a volatile week after reports surfaced of the US Securities and State Commission’s alleged investigation of the Ethereum Foundation.
Though it likely turned out to be a manipulation tactic to push ETH price lower, the news did create FUD over the chances of a spot ETH ETF approval.
Haliburton: NFTs Introduced Me To Ethereum
The Indiana Pacers point guard shared that Bitcoin was the first crypto that he heard about. However, Haliburton’s involvement with NFT projects introduced the player to the Ethereum blockchain.
Moreover, NFTs are also the reason why the NBA star invested “heavily” in Ethereum. Interestingly, Haliburton stated that his schedule did not afford him the time to participate in trading actively.
But the point guard was open to giving a large sum from his contract to his day-trader brother for investing in cryptos. McClung, who recently won the AT&T NBA Slam Dunk Contest, stated that he would not ‘count out‘ investing in cryptocurrencies.
Furthermore, Haliburton stated that despite investing in Ethereum due to his love for NFTs, the 24-year-old athlete considers Bitcoin to be the “blue chip” of the cryptocurrency sector.
Crypto platforms have made multiple partnerships with NBA teams. For instance, Crypto.com inked jersey patch deals with the 76ers and secured naming rights for the Lakers’ arena.
StormX sponsors the Trail Blazers’ jerseys, while FTX formerly partnered with the Warriors (that is not something to remember now though, is it?). The Kings and Mavericks have allowed crypto payments, and the NBA also has an NFT marketplace called the NBA Top Shot.
Meanwhile, ETH price is struggling to hold above $3,300 after the spiking more than 13% on March 20, the date of the Tyrese Haliburton interview, incidentally.
The prospect of the SEC delaying ETH ETF approval could result in more losses for the token, with ETH price suffering its largest single-day loss since Nov. 2022, shedding nearly 10% to reach a daily low near $3,174 on March 19.
Additionally, the token dropped over 7% to reach a daily low near $3,280 before bulls recovered some of the losses on March 22.
ETH’s relative strength index returns to the neutral region, with the RSI trendline plummeting towards the oversold region, scoring 45.95 on the daily charts. The RSI is a momentum indicator measuring asset price movements to identify overbought or oversold conditions.
If the sell-off continues, Ether’s price could drop to the support near $3,100, attracting short traders to the market. Breaching the immediate support would confirm the downtrend, forcing ETH price to test its 100-day EMA (blue wave) support near $2,870.
Conversely, a rally from here might see ETH price face resistance from the supply wall near $3,560. Moreover, flipping the immediate support could help the token rally to the resistance near $3,840 before retreating.