Australian baseball club Perth Heat to pay athletes in Bitcoin

Australian baseball club Perth Heat has announced a partnership with Bitcoin payment processor OpenNode to accept and make payments in Bitcoin (BTC). The partnership allows Perth Heat to pay professional players and staff in Bitcoin. 

According to the announcement, the professional sports club will send and receive payments in Bitcoin over the Lightning Network. In addition, the partnership with OpenNode allows the Perth Heat organization to accept Bitcoin payments for sponsorships, merchandise and other revenue streams.

Taking things a step further, Perth Heat has also rebranded itself to be called “the Bitcoin baseball team.”

The club has also listed Bitcoin-branded merchandise on its official website. Showing long-term commitment to mainstream Bitcoin adoption, the announcement stated:

“As part of this sporting world exclusive, Perth Heat will hodl Bitcoin on the club’s balance sheet.”

Steven Nelkovski, the CEO of Perth Heat believes that embracing the underlying values of the Bitcoin protocol “will inspire others to embrace a monetary system that demands value creation to thrive.” According to the club’s “chief bitcoin officer,” Patrick O’Sullivan:

“The club has already established an initial position in BTC to help secure its digital property rights on the world’s most secure monetary network and will continue to reinvest available capital into Bitcoin. The Perth Heat are embracing the reality that the future of money and corporate treasuries will live on the Bitcoin blockchain.”

Related: Australian Senators pushing for country to become the next crypto hub

The Land Down Under has ramped up efforts this year to allow regulated crypto adoption. On Oct. 20, an Australian Senate committee called for a complete overhaul of crypto legislation and licensing.

As Cointelegraph reported a few days later, the Australia Securities and Investments Commission also released a guideline that greenlights Bitcoin and Ether (ETH)-based exchange-traded products:

“As of October 2021, Bitcoin and Ether appear likely to satisfy all five factors identified above to determine appropriate underlying assets for an ETP. We expect the range of non-financial product crypto-assets that can satisfy these factors will expand over time.”

A recent survey conducted by Crypto.com also found that Australian citizens are equally keen to explore crypto investments. Out of the polled 2,020 Australians aged between 18 and 59, 26% responded that they would consider giving some away for Christmas or buying crypto-related gifts.

According to Crypto.com general manager Karl Mohan, “Australians are clearly very keen to adopt cryptocurrencies and integrate their use into day-to-day spending.”