Big profits! Durant regains access to his Bitcoin account as the price surges nearly 200-fold

On September 20th Beijing time, although Durant has not yet renewed his contract with the Rockets, he has already made a significant gain off the court. According to CNBC, Durant has successfully logged back into his long-dormant Coinbase account. Previously troubled by lost login credentials, he has now resolved the issue and regained control over the Bitcoin he purchased almost a decade ago.

Coinbase CEO Armstrong confirmed on social media that Durant successfully reset his account with the help of Coinbase’s support tools.

In 2016, Durant and his agent Rich Kleiman attended a birthday party hosted by venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, after which they made their first Bitcoin purchase. Kleiman recalled this experience at CNBC’s “GamePlan” event held in Los Angeles this week.

“That night, I heard the word ‘Bitcoin’ at least 25 times, so the next day, we started investing in it,” Kleiman reminisced during the event, though he did not disclose the amount of Bitcoin bought at that time.

According to US media, when Durant first bought Bitcoin, its price was around $600 per coin; now, Bitcoin trades near $117,000, representing an increase close to 200 times.

Because Durant was unable to access the account for many years, these Bitcoin assets remained untouched, thus witnessing one of the most dramatic bull markets in financial history intact.

The root of the account problem was the loss of login credentials. Kleiman joked about this issue on stage, saying, “But Bitcoin kept going up… so actually, this worked in our favor.” Now, this problem has finally been resolved.

Durant has maintained a close relationship with Coinbase over the years. In 2017, he and Kleiman invested in Coinbase through their venture firm Thirty Five Ventures; since 2021, Durant has also been a brand partner of the exchange.

Durant’s cryptocurrency investment journey coincided with a peak period in his basketball career. In 2016, he joined the Golden State Warriors and won his first NBA championship the following year. Now playing for the Rockets, he ranks seventh on the NBA all-time scoring list.

Additionally, Durant is one of many NBA players increasingly embracing digital assets. Tristan Thompson launched a Web3 fan engagement project this week, while Spencer Dinwiddie has attempted to tokenize his NBA contract.