This week there were numerous reports that Lawrence suffered a loss of nearly $15M in the wake of his deal. We're not lying, on our side at SB Nation we did as also -- however, the reality is that Lawrence probably didn't forfeit the Madden 23 coins  cash. The confusion is due to an endorsement agreement that was pre-draft Lawrence signed using "Blockfolio," and the terms used by the company to announce that they signed Lawrence in the month of April in 2021.

As soon as Lawrence has joined Blockfolio they announced their endorsement deal via the form of a press release. The press release referred to the amount they paid Lawrence as a "signing bonus," most likely to be a method of sounding more athletic. They also stated that they were depositing the reward into one of their crypto wallets for the QB."This collaboration is the first endorsement deal ever in which a substantial signing bonus is paid completely in cryptocurrency. The bonus was put directly into the player's Blockfolio account and included Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana."

There's nothing called a "signing bonus" when it comes to an endorsement contract. It's just the endorsement contract. You sign the deal and then you're paid -- or in Lawrence's case you receive crypto. While the usage of the word "sports" is relatively harmless the moment you read it, things got a bit more complicated. Following the Blockfolio press announcement, USA Today aggregated the information and this is where the confusion began.

The story coMadden NFL 23 used the term "signing bonus" that was mentioned on the Blockfolio press release. It then was able to combine it with Lawrence's official Madden NFL 23 award offered by the Jaguars -- claiming it being $24.1M, and using Spotrac as source. source."The probable No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 Madden NFL 23 draft, probably headed to an NFL team like the Jacksonville Jaguars, has partnered with a world-wide cryptocurrency-based investment application called Blockfolio and plans to transfer his prize in an account with the firm."

"According to Spotrac this year's signing bonus for next year's top. 1 pick is an estimated $22.630.055." Now we are dealing with an endorsement from Blockfolio, presumably fairly small in comparison to other endorsement deals, which was paid directly in crypto -- and is now linked to Lawrence's enormous Buy Madden 23 coins  signing bonus from the league, but misrepresented the fact that the money was deposited into crypto.