Tristan Thompson: NBA champion puts 10-15% of wealth in Bitcoin, aims for $1 million

Bitcoin as a digital savings account, not a trade

Thompson frames his Bitcoin holdings as a long-term store of value rather than a trading vehicle, comparing it to "your digital 401k" and to someone stacking gold bars. He says he treats it the way people in Alabama, Switzerland or the Middle East might treat physical gold, except "instead of it just having metric tons, it sits on a ledger." He confirms he also owns physical gold alongside his Bitcoin position.

Asked how much conviction this represents, he puts a number on it: "probably about 10 to 15%" of his personal wealth sits in Bitcoin, which he calls "a good amount" while stressing diversification. He points to Warren Buffett as a model of spreading exposure across sectors rather than concentrating in one asset.

"Nothing is guaranteed in life except taxes, death, and Bitcoin to $1 million." — Tristan Thompson

Beyond Bitcoin: Solana, memecoins and leverage

Thompson says he also holds Solana, but frames it as working capital for liquidity pools and pairs rather than a conviction bet on Solana as internet infrastructure. He describes Solana's ecosystem as easy for retail to onboard, comparing staking for yield to a bank account without the "crazy" fees. He also admits to holding "a little bit" of Dogecoin and says he is "really a DGEN" who does LP pools, spot buying, angel investing and late-stage secondaries.

He discloses a memecoin trade where he was up "multiple seven figures" and exited with only about one-third of that gain, citing greed as the culprit. He also says he has lost six figures leverage trading before recovering, and separately describes a profitable leveraged long on Zcash and on Hyperliquid ("the hype long") that he says funded a trip to Qatar.

"I definitely had a memecoin where I was up multiple seven figures and I definitely exited with like one-third of that." — Tristan Thompson

A view on Zcash's privacy narrative

Asked directly about his thesis on Zcash, Thompson calls the privacy narrative "great" and says he believes the world is heading toward operating "behind closed doors." He confirms he holds spot Zcash in addition to the leveraged long he described. When asked whether Zcash is "the privacy Bitcoin," he pushes back on the framing, saying it's "its own lane, its own category" rather than a Bitcoin substitute, without giving a price target.

Why rich people, including athletes, lose it all

Thompson argues that wealth destruction isn't unique to athletes, pointing to what he says was an unnamed portfolio manager who was overleveraged and lost "close to 40% or something" of assets under management, which he estimates at around $20 billion. He says athletes get singled out in media coverage simply because of their visibility, while bankers and venture investors suffer similar losses without the same scrutiny, naming JPMorgan and BlackRock as having "failed us" during a banking crisis he describes without a date.

He attributes much of the wealth loss to greed and ego, saying the drive to be proven right ("I told you so") is a bigger psychological trap for men than the money itself. His own discipline, he says, comes from growing up valuing the dollar, which he contrasts with crypto natives who he believes sometimes treat gains as "fairy tale money."

"I think people just sometimes, you know, like I say, pigs get slaughtered. You can't be greedy." — Tristan Thompson

AI, robotics and where value accrues

Thompson says he is most bullish on physical AI and robotics rather than large language models, which he calls "just software." He cites his investment in a venture he refers to as "Prometheus," linked to Amazon's Jeff Bezos, as an example of robots potentially running warehouses around the clock. He expects some labor displacement but argues jobs monitoring and operating robotic systems will remain.

He also mentions investing in an unnamed California company that raised $40 million to build AI software for sourcing local services like plumbers and electricians, as an example of capturing value by attaching AI to real-world services rather than just funding model builders.

Investing philosophy shaped by basketball

Thompson says sports taught him to evaluate people's strengths and weaknesses, a skill he now applies to backing founders who combine relentless drive with the ability to "pivot" when reality demands it. He says he bets on the founder over the pedigree, dismissing the weight some investors place on Ivy League credentials.

He advises newer investors to start small and accept that "not every investment is going to make a 100x," citing his own best exit — Poppi, the soda brand he says was acquired for "over a billion and a half, two billion" — against missed opportunities he only vaguely alludes to without naming.