Dallas Mavericks Will Accept Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency in 2018 NBA Season, Mark Cuban Announces

The Dallas Mavericks will accept Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency as payment for tickets in the 2018-19 NBA season, owner Mark Cuban has announced.

Cuban was asked on Twitter on Tuesday, "Mark, when will I be able to purchase Mavs tickets with bitcoin?"

"Next season." Cuban replied.

The story was first reported by Bloomberg, which noted that 59-year-old billionaire Cuban invested in Bitcoin in 2017 after calling it a "bubble" earlier in the year. "I think it's in a bubble. I just don't know when or how much it corrects. When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making $=bubble," Cuban wrote on June 6 in a tweet subsequently deleted but reported by Business Insider. "Anyone anywhere can buy a stock," he wrote in a subsequent tweet that day. "#crypto is like gold. More religion than asset. Except of course gold makes nice jewelry. #crypto notsomuch."

Cuban is an investor in the Seattle-based startup Unikrn, an eSports betting company which launched its own cryptocurrency, UnikoinGold, in August. "Some people want to buy products in krypto to prove a point. We are happy to make it easy for them," Cuban wrote in an email to Bloomberg. "And for Existing Mavs fans who prefer to spend krypto currency we are happy to make it easy for them." Cuban told Bloomberg that the Mavericks would also be accepting Ether cryptocurrency, Bitcoin's rival which is based on the ethereum blockchain.

The Mavericks, 13th in the Western Conference, are not the first NBA franchise to welcome cryptocurrency as a method of payment. The Sacramento Kings began accepting Bitcoin in March 2014. "When I sold the NBA on keeping the team in Sacramento, my pitch included using the sports franchise as a social network to push the technology envelope," Kings co-owner Vivek Ranadive told ESPN at the time. Almost four years later, Cuban is following suit.