The Perth Heat have become the first professional sporting organisation in the world to pay all their players and staff in Bitcoin.
The Australian Baseball League club will convert its whole business to using Bitcoin as part of a new sponsorship with payments company OpenNode.
The Heat announced they will also accept Bitcoin payments for sponsorship, merchandise, and hold Bitcoin on the club’s balance sheet.
“We firmly believe that the mindset that Bitcoin imparts on network participants will be felt by our players, coaches, staff, and our loyal fan base and we look forward to setting the bar for how much value a sports organisation can bring to a community in the Bitcoin age,” Heat CEO Steven Nelkovski said.
“By embracing the underlying values of the Bitcoin protocol we believe that the organisation can reach new levels of success both on and off the field and remind the world of the true value of sports.
“We know the community looks to the Perth Heat as a model of success and we hope our adoption of a Bitcoin Standard will inspire others to embrace a monetary system that demands value creation to thrive.
“The players and organisational staff have fully embraced the opportunities that being paid in Bitcoin can provide.”