Missouri’s Jontay Porter is a bitcoin connoisseur

While you weren’t looking, Missouri basketball Jontay Porter has become an NBA prospect, and also a bitcoin cryptocurrency expert.

Michael Porter Jr’s early-season back injury took a lot of buzz away from Missouri men’s basketball this year. But they are in the NCAA Tournament, as the No. 9 seed in the West Region with a first-round date with Florida State Friday night. Jontay Porter followed his brother to play for Cuonzo Martin, and he’s become the Tigers’ leading rebounder (6.8 per game) and third-leading scorer (10.1 points per game) this season.

Porter has bolstered his status as an NBA prospect during his freshman season, and he is currently projected as a late-first round pick in June’s draft if he declares early. But as it turns out, he is more than a budding pro prospect. Aaron Reiss of the Kansas City Star wrote a profile on Porter, with some interesting notes about his interests outside of basketball, including but not limited to his work in the cryptocurrency field.

Porter’s parents recently bought him a used SUV, but he had no way to pay them back. So what did he do? He sold half of his cryptocurrency portfolio, which includes Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Tron. If that seems like an incredibly diverse portfolio of cryptocurrencies, it’s not an accident.

“I did my own research, obviously; that’s what you should always do if you’re investing,” Porter told the Kansas City Star.  He spent $300 on bitcoins and then “slowly invested ‘bits and chunks’ of his student-athlete per diem in more cryptocurrencies.”

Porter has picked up his play at the right time for Missouri, averaging 21 points and 7.7 rebounds per game over his last three games. He’s also 10-for-14 from beyond the arc in those three games, and he’s 13-18 from three-point range over his last five contests.

Next: 3 extremely urgent facts about Jontay Porter

If Missouri makes any sort of run in the Big Dance, Porter will probably be at the forefront of it. But his outside interests, and savvy/fearless cryptocurrency investment, make the less-heralded Porter brother an interesting figure.

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