On April 7, the digital currency exchange Crypto.com announced that fighters from the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), will be able to win Fight Night bonuses that will be paid in bitcoin. Fight Night bonus payouts will vary depending on placement, and contestants that finish first place will get paid $30,000 in bitcoin for the win.
UFC and Crypto.com to Pay Athletes Bonuses in Bitcoin via Fan Voting Process
After partnering with the UFC during the first week of July 2021, the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com announced on Thursday bitcoin bonuses for UFC athletes who place first, second, and third in a Fight Night competition. Moreover, the placement decision will be done by fan voting in order to choose the top three best fighters from each UFC pay-per-view (PPV) event. “Bitcoin bonuses include $30,000 for First Place, $20,000 for Second Place, and $10,000 for Third Place,” the crypto exchange’s announcement explains.
The bitcoin (BTC) bonuses will be based on the USD exchange rate at the time and the first bitcoin bonus Fight Night will be at UFC 273: Volkanovski vs the Korean Zombie. The UFC tournament will take place on Saturday, April 9 at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. “Crypto.com has been an official UFC partner for less than a year, and I’m telling you they are already one of the best partners we’ve ever had,” UFC president Dana White said in a statement. The UFC executive added:
[Crypto.com is] constantly coming up with new ideas about how we can work together to connect with the fans. This new Fan Bonus of the Night is an awesome way to get fans more engaged in our events while rewarding the fighters for bad-ass performances.
According to the announcement on Thursday, each UFC PPV event will have fan voting and fans will leverage the URL crypto.com/fanbonus to access the portal. Crypto.com says the voting is open to all users globally and fans get three votes per PPV event. Fans can vote for two fighters per bout and voting begins at the start of the PPV preliminaries, while voting ends an hour after the Fight Night event.
“Central to our partnership with UFC is creating the most unique and compelling ways for fans to connect with the sport and their favorite athletes,” Steven Kalifowitz, Crypto.com’s chief marketing officer said. “We are thrilled for this next step in our partnership with UFC and excited to build even more innovative and engaging experiences as our partnership continues.”
