It seems as though the cryptopocalypse isn't stopping athletes from exploring the digital asset world.
Luana Pinheiro, a Brazilian athlete, and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter, has recently announced that she would be joining forces with a crypto payment provider Bitwage to receive 100% of her salary in Bitcoin (BTC).
Did you know?
Want to get smarter & wealthier with crypto?
Subscribe - We publish new crypto explainer videos every week!
What is BNB? The Truth Behind Binance Smart Chain (Animated)
According to an interview issued on July 19th, the fighter will leverage the crypto-focused global payments firm to convert her salary into a digital asset. The news arrives a couple of months after Pinheiro’s boyfriend Matheus Nicolau also formed a partnership with Bitwage and adopted a Bitcoin Standard.
Nicolau commented on Pinheiro's decision and stated that he is very happy that he isn't alone on a rather "bold" and "courageous" path that will benefit both athletes in the near future. "We stand and do things together, united and fully in sync, because that is how we are - never above, never below, but always beside each other," he concluded.
On top of that, the initiative makes her the first female athlete in UFC history in Latin America to get paid in a cryptocurrency. She mentioned that the current crypto bear market isn’t something that should be feared, as she considers volatility the keystone of crypto adoption. The athlete explained:
“I do not think I will have a problem with Bitcoin going down or up. If it was not volatile it would not go up either. Think about this: it takes on average 10-15 years for an individual to get a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so my time preference here is equally long if not longer.”
Pinheiro, currently ranked 15th in the strawweight fighting class, also noted that throughout her career, she always saw Bitcoin (BTC) as a hedge against inflation. When commenting on her brave decision to join the crypto world during such harsh times, the fighter mentioned that people shouldn’t forget that she is from Brazil, a place where the annual inflation reached 12.03% in the first two weeks of April, the fastest in almost 20 years.
In fact, this isn't UFC's first foray into the digital asset world, as earlier this year, the crypto exchange Crypto.com partnered up with the professional MMA organization to issue awards to UFC athletes in BTC, as part of the fight night bonuses.
Likewise, Pinheiro isn't the only athlete to receive 100% of her salary in Bitcoin, the list also includes soccer players Achara Ifunanyachi, Alex Crognale, and Alex Barrett.
