Professional Soccer Player Ifunanyachi Achara Partners with Bitwage

"Professional soccer is basically what every boy growing up in Nigeria wants to do," said Ifunanyachi Achara – Major League Soccer (MLS) Forward at Toronto FC – during a conversation with Bitwage.

Growing up in Nigeria, Achara was no exception to this dream. Soccer was always the cornerstone of his life and when he was drafted to Toronto in 2020, his dream reached a full realization.

However, in this new position, Achara found that he had been granted a unique sort of leverage. He was now in a place to help support his friends and family back home in Nigeria: a nation that is famous for its technological advances but infamous for its inflation and unstable economy.

And it is through his connection to Nigeria – a desire to help his family – that drew Achara to bitcoin.

Bitcoin salaries are becoming a popular option for professional athletes

Bitwage is proud to announce that we are partnering with Achara to ensure that his education, involvement, and acquisition of bitcoin are as seamless and simple as possible.

Through our partnership, Achara can play a role in spreading the key messages of bitcoin across the soccer community and financially help his family in a way that is easy, fast, and secure.

Achara was born and raised in Enugu, Nigeria. He moved to the United States in 2014 – barely speaking English – and quickly dedicated much of his time to playing league soccer.

In 2016, he attended college at Georgetown University and played for the Hoyas. Achara was appointed team captain in 2019 and led the team to the 2019 NCAA title.

After graduation, he was signed to Toronto FC as a Forward.

Since his signing, Achara has been an outspoken advocate on racial issues, SARS, and social injustice in Nigeria.

However, once Achara was signed, he began to think about what to do with his MLS salary. He researched all the traditional investments, but with the solitude provided by coronavirus restrictions, he began to look into bitcoin.

"I've been in Toronto ever since COVID started and haven't gotten out much – basically in quarantine – so I've had a lot of time to research bitcoin. Eventually, I went down a rabbit hole and fell in love."

But there was a problem. Living in Canada, Achara was not able to use many of the pre-existing exchanges. This problem was solved with Bitwage.

"I wish I knew about Bitwage earlier," he said, "I would've been able to buy bitcoin through my paycheck without worrying about an exchange."

Bitwage allows you to bypass the hassle of crypto exchanges and purchase bitcoin/crypto with your wage

Bitwage helped Achara gain quick and easy access to bitcoin through his MLS salary. Not only was he able to stack sats through dollar-cost averaging, but he was also able to assist his loved ones.

Sending money to family and friends in Nigeria with ease and convenience was one of the biggest advantages of Achara getting paid in bitcoin through Bitwage. Sending money wires to Nigerian banks is often a fraught exercise: nearly impossible with his Wells Fargo account because the bank required him to physically be in the U.S. This, and other logistical challenges, forced Achara to think creatively.

Bitcoin allowed him to bypass the banks and put money into the crypto wallets of the people he cares about overseas.

"Seeing how it immediately helped people back home with the lowest cost changed everything," he said.

Receiving his salary in bitcoin through Bitwage saves Achara the headache of going through exchange loopholes and ensures that he's stacking bitcoin consistently. He's able to acquire bitcoin for himself and send the rest back home.

For Achara, this is truly living the dream.