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Voyager Digital will be crypto brokerage partner for Dallas Mavericks

October 27, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Basketball

Under owner Mark Cuban, the basketball franchise was one of the first in the NBA to accept crypto payments for tickets and merchandise.

Crypto trading platform Voyager Digital has inked a deal with the Dallas Mavericks basketball team aiming to make crypto more accessible through fan engagement and other educational programs.

In an Oct. 27 announcement, Voyager Digital said it would become the Mavs first cryptocurrency brokerage and international partner in a five-year deal. The trading platform will also have naming rights over the franchise’s Mavs Gaming Hub in Dallas, a venue for the Mavs NBA 2K League team.

"This partnership gives us the opportunity to educate people all over the world on ways to use crypto in their everyday lives,” said Voyager Digital co-founder and CEO Steve Ehrlich. “We want to help people learn alternate ways to grow their wealth to achieve true financial freedom and build intergenerational wealth through crypto. We found a great partner to do this with in the Mavs and their owner, Mark Cuban, who is already deeply involved in the space."

Under owner Mark Cuban, the basketball franchise was one of the first in the NBA to accept crypto payments for tickets and merchandise. The Mavs first started accepting Bitcoin (BTC) in 2019, and this year — perhaps due to Cuban being a major Dogecoin (DOGE) proponent — expanded to include the meme-based token.

Many crypto companies and platforms have formed partnerships with sports organizations across the globe as the space expands and seemingly becomes more profitable as a sponsor. Crypto derivatives exchange FTX announced it had become the official sponsor of Major League Baseball in June and previously struck a deal to name the Miami Heat’s home stadium the FTX Arena until 2040.

The announcement comes following the Mavs kicking off the 2021–2022 season on Oct. 6.

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October 17, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Billionaires are backing Bitcoin over gold … but some say Ethereum is even better

October 14, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Barry Sternlicht

“The reason I own Bitcoin is because the U.S. government and every government in the western hemisphere is printing money now to the end of time,” said Billionaire Barry Sternlicht.

Following JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's recent comments that Bitcoin is worthless, two well known billionaires have leapt to its defense — although both of them say Ether has some even more desirable properties.

During an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box on Oct. 13, Barry Sternlicht, the co-founder of Starwood Capital Group said that gold was actually “worthless” and he is hodling Bitcoin (BTC) because every government in the “western hemisphere” is printing endless amounts of money.

Sternlicht is estimated to have a net worth of around $4.4 billion and is known for his investments in the real estate market via Starwood Capital Group. The investment firm was founded in 1991 and reportedly has around $95 billion worth of assets under management (AUM).

Sternlicht was asked for his take on Jamie Dimon’s reiterated skepticism over BTC being “worthless.”

“Gold is kind of worthless too, and so is silver, I mean they have some industrial uses but they are minor. The reason I own Bitcoin is because the U.S. government and every government in the western hemisphere is printing money now to the end of time,” he said.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has a net worth of $4.3B, echoed similar sentiments when he spoke to CNBC Make IT on Wednesday. Cuban said that BTC is “better than gold,” before going on to say that he thinks Ethereum has the “most upside” as an investment.

Despite favoring BTC over gold, Sternlicht also went on to qualify his support for Bitcoin with praise for Ethereum.

“Bitcoin is a dumb coin, it has no real purpose other than a store of value, and it's crazily volatile. So Ether, I own some of that, it's a programmable Bitcoin and there are tons of other coins that are built on that system.”

“I've become very interested in blockchain technology as a whole, and the digital ledger which is going to change everything, we’re probably in inning one,” he added.

Not every billionaire is on board the crypto train however. Larry Fink the chairman of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock ($9.4 trillion AUM) stated that he’s “probably more on the Jamie Dimon camp.”

"I'm not a student of Bitcoin and where it's going to go so I can't tell you whether it's going to $80K or $0. But I do believe there is a huge role for a digitized currency," he said.

Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks offer cashback rewards on Dogecoin purchases

September 3, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Dallas Mavs fans who spend more than $150 worth of Dogecoin in one transaction will receive a $25 e-gift card that they can use for purchases on the team's online store.

Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban’s NBA franchise, started a cashback rewards program to incentivize merchandise and ticket payments in Dogecoin (DOGE).

The rewards program is dubbed “Mavs Cryptomania,” and customers who spend more than $150 worth of Dogecoin in one transaction will receive a $25 e-gift card that they can use for online purchases in the Dallas Mavs shop.

The program is slated to finish on September 30. At the time of writing, users will need to outlay 505 Doge in order to receive the e-gift card.

The Mavs started accepting DOGE for payments back in March and were also one of the first NBA franchises to accept Bitcoin (BTC) payments for tickets and merchandise back in 2019.

Cuban is a major Dogecoin proponent and stated in April that while the coin started as a joke, it is “becoming a digital currency” due to its increasing adoption rate.

The billionaire investor stated in May that Dogecoin had outperformed other crypto assets in terms of merchandise purchases, as he noted that “we sell more Mavs merchandise for DOGE on a typical day [...] than we did in a year with BTC or ETH.”

Cuban has become a prominent figure in crypto and blockchain tech in 2021 and has backed various crypto and blockchain projects such as Ethereum-based scaling solution Polygon, NFT protocol Alethea AI and NFT marketplace providers Genius, to name a few.

The Mavs owner recently fired back in response to Donald Trump’s latest FUD in which he suggested that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were a “disaster waiting to happen.”

Senior NBA analyst Bill Ingram stated on Sept. 2 that “I'm not one to agree with the former president on much of anything, but I have long wondered whether we really need another form of currency that only has a pretend value because some group of people decides to pretend it does.”

Cuban responded by urging Ingram to not think of crypto assets as “currencies,” as he emphasized the underlying tech that drives the sector:

“Think of them as decentralized, secure, networked platforms with features that allow for the development of apps that can have unique utility for individuals and businesses.”

Dallas Mavericks