NBA Increases Bitcoin Acceptance As Sacramento Kings Joins

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More and more American sports stars are being offered the possibility to receive their salary in Bitcoin. Latest team to join in are NBA’s Sacramento Kings who announced that they would extend Bitcoin salaries to all employees.

The news was presented by Vivek Ranadivé, the team owner. According to Neil Jacobs, who is known for his interventions in the Café Bitcoin program, the head of the Sacramento Kings will make it possible for all his employees to receive their salaries in Bitcoin.

Push the tech envelope

Already we wonder how Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks and a keen crypto supporter, will react.

The NBA’s Sacramento Kings organization will soon give their employees 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 the option to get paid in #bitcoin

Massive!🏀

— Documenting Bitcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) April 5, 2021

This is far from the first time the Sacramento Kings have shown an interest in Bitcoin. As early as 2014, they had started accepting BTC for payment for products intended for fans.

When I sold the NBA on keeping the team in Sacramento, my pitch included using the sports franchise as a social network to push the technology envelope.

Ranadivé said at the time.

In 2019, they went further and offered a token, the KingsToken. Lastly, a little over a year ago, the Sacramento Kings launched an auction platform using the Ethereum blockchain for their own NFTs.

BREAKING: Chairman of the Sacramento Kings:

“I’m going to announce in the next few days that I’m going to offer everyone in the Kings organization, they can get paid as much of their salary in #bitcoin as they want, including the players.” - @vivek@SacramentoKings
@NBA

— Neil Jacobs (@NeilJacobs) April 5, 2021

Although the Kings were forerunners in the adoption of Bitcoin and blockchain, they are no longer alone.

https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/nbatopshot

Token fans have come to the fore in 2020, especially in the football world (see Chiliz for example).