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All staff at NBA team the Sacramento Kings, including players, will soon be able to receive their salary in bitcoin, club owner Vivek Ranadivé announced on Clubhouse Monday evening, per numerous reports.
"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," Ranadivé said, according to a tweet by Neil Jacobs, who regularly moderates bitcoin discussions on the platform.
Jason Brett confirmed the announcement in an article for Forbes.
The Kings did not immediately respond to Insider's request for the comment.
Since 2014, the team has accepted bitcoin for merchandise and tickets — at the time, it said it was the first professional sports team to make the move.
In recent months, other big companies have started accepting the cryptocurrency as payment. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in March that Tesla would accept bitcoin for car purchases — a week later, crypto startup Bakkt launched an app letting customers pay with bitcoin at Starbucks, Choice Hotels, and Best Buy.
Other companies have started one-off bitcoin marketing campaigns. Fast-food chain Chipotle gave out $100,000 in bitcoin as a part of a "Burritos or Bitcoin" game on Thursday, which it said made it the first US restaurant to give away bitcoin.
Bitcoin has soared in 2021, reaching an all-time high of more than $60,000 in March.
But the currency is very volatile, and crypto exchange founder Bobby Lee told Insider's Harry Robertson that investors should be more aware of the asset's history of bubbles and dramatic price crashes.
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