The Washington Nationals and Terra, a cryptocurrency DAO, have agreed to a $40 million deal that could see Terra accepted at Nats games in 2023.
Nationals Park is tracking toward becoming the first Major League ballpark to accept cryptocurrency for all official transactions, and it could happen as early as the 2023 season as part of the first-ever partnership between a major sporting organization and the Web3 phenomenon known as a DAO.
That’s because the Washington Nationals have entered into an agreement with Terra, a decentralized autonomous organization, in a deal that Coindesk reports is worth nearly $40 million.
As part of the deal, the Terra will take over naming rights to the Nationals’ premium behind-the-plate club seats. Terra will also get in-stadium signage and a five-part digital series to air on the Nationals’ social channels.
“The Nationals continue to push the envelope,” said Mark D. Lerner, majority owner of the Nationals, in an official release. “We are excited to partner with Terra to name our most exclusive club and explore bringing powerful new fan experiences to Nationals Park, including the use of UST cryptocurrency to make purchases.”
TerraUSD ($UST) is a decentralized stablecoin that runs on the Ethereum blockchain and aims to maintain a value of $1 USD. As of this writing, it is the most prevalent algorithmic stablecoin with 11.2 billion in circulation.
“This first-of-its-kind partnership between a DAO and a sports franchise opens a new world of opportunities for bringing crypto and DeFi to the masses,” Do Kwon, founder of Terraform Labs added. “By approving this sponsorship deal, the community has a new way to engage and educate the public, including the policy makers doing important work in Washington, D.C., about decentralized money and the burgeoning technology that underlies it.”
While the Nationals wouldn’t be the first MLB team to accept cryptocurrency — the Oakland A’s have accepted Bitcoin and Dogecoin for certain individual transactions in the past — they would not be the first American pro franchise. The Dallas Mavericks began accepting DOGE last year and the Sacramento Kings have been taking Bitcoin for years.
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