On Wednesday, cryptocurrency payments service company Bitways announced that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) strawweight Luana Pinheiro will be the first female UFC fighter to be paid in bitcoin. Pinheiro’s boyfriend, a UFC flyweight fighter, began receiving payments in bitcoin last March, and after an eight-fight winning streak, Pinheiro decided to follow his partner’s decision to get paid in crypto.
UFC strawweight Luana Pinheiro to get paid in Bitcoin via Bitwage
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters are getting into the crypto asset these days, when UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Nganou announced that he would be paying half of his UFC 270 wallets in bitcoin. The UFC also partnered with digital currency exchange Crypto.com and through a deal with the company, UFC Fight Night bonuses are paid out in bitcoin. On July 27, crypto payments service company Bitways announced that UFC fighter, strawweight Luana Pinheiro (18-2 record), would be the first female UFC fighter to be paid in bitcoin (BTC).
Bitways details that since Pinheiro is leveraging the company’s platform, it does not need to negotiate with mixed martial arts (MMA) company UFC to receive crypto payments. Pinheiro got the idea from her boyfriend, who is also a UFC fighter in the flyweight division, Matthias Nicolau (18-2 record). Nichols began making payments in BTC in March and Bitways said this makes them “a true UFC power pair on the bitcoin standard.”
“MMA is a brutal sport and there is no time to think much. Mental strength and calmness are everything,” Pinheiro told bitcoin.com news in a statement. “I don’t think I’m under bitcoin. Or will there be a problem going up” [in fiat value], If it wasn’t unstable, it wouldn’t even go up. Think about it this way: it takes an average of 10-15 years for a person to get a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so my time preference here is as long as not long. Black Belt Time Preference I call it. Everything else is just noise to me and the lower the price, the more bitcoins I will be able to secure for the future.”
Bitways co-founder Jonathan Chester: ‘The right information at the right time is everything’
According to Bitways co-founder and CEO, Jonathan Chester, the company’s team flew to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to personally help Pinheiro get started. Chester commented that the service is not just for athletes and high-net-worth people as anyone around the world can choose to use Bitways’ crypto payment services. “The right information at the right time is everything. Having knowledge and not acting on it does not mean that we acquire knowledge in the first place. We get it so we can act.” Chester explained during the announcement on Wednesday. Chester added:
It is our goal to help each person on their journey. Through education, everyone can choose how they want to receive payments, whether in their self-controlled wallet or in their bank account. So in the end, they don’t need anyone and they are really free.
Since 2014, Bitways has been offering crypto and stablecoin payroll services, and in 2020 it launched a retirement service with the exchange Gemini. To date, the startup has processed over $150 million in transactions and has partnerships with 50,000 users and 2,000 companies worldwide. In addition to UFC fighters Pinheiro and their boyfriend Nikolaou, professional athletes Alex Barrett, Achara Ifunanyachi and Alex Krognale have also opted to pay in crypto using the Bitways service.
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