To be clear, the Panthers are not paying Okung directly in bitcoin. Instead, the team will divert roughly $6.5 million from Okung's salary to Strike, which will then presumably take a fee and process bitcoin transactions for Okung, a longtime advocate of the currency.
Strike did not respond to a CNBC request to confirm the transaction fees associated with Okung's agreement.
Bitcoin is trading at more than $27,000, so Okung will receive approximately 240 coins at that value. Since his playing days with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2019, Okung lobbied to have his salary replaced with bitcoin.
"He's hoping long-term that the price of bitcoin is going up," Chris Matta, managing director of sales and trading at bitcoin and cryptoasset firm 3iQ, told CNBC on Tuesday. "And this move is a show of his support and long-term bullishness for bitcoin growing even more from here."