Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters will get their fan bonuses in Bitcoin 

BTC

$17,447

The fan bonus will be paid out to the top three fighters of the pay-per-view (PPV) event by UFC's official cryptocurrency platform partner, Crypto.com. There will be a total of three Bitcoin fan bonuses of the night ranging from $10,000 to $30,000. Fans from around the globe can vote for the BTC bonuses of the night on the official Crypto.com website on the day of the event.

The first Bitcoin fan bonus will be introduced during the upcoming UFC 273: Volkanovski vs The Korean Zombie PPV event scheduled for Saturday. The Bitcoin fan bonus will be an addition to the traditional Fight of the Night and Performance bonuses awarded to UFC athletes.

UFC president Dana White lauded the organization’s recent association with Crypto.com, saying:

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.”

Related: NFT-funded racing aims to disrupt sports sponsorships

Sports and crypto have shown one of the best synergies over the past couple of years, with several major sporting companies and events partnering with emerging crypto tech. As a global sporting brand, UFC was among the first to integrate crypto-based promotions and even inked a $175-million sponsorship deal with Crypto.com in July last year.

UFC fighters, quite similar to United States National Football League stars, have also opted for BTC and crypto paychecks over fiat payouts. The major mixed martial art sports company has also bet big on nonfungible tokens (NFT) as the firm had launched its first official NFT in November last year.

Apart from UFC, other major sporting organizations, such as Formula One, National Basketball Association and several professional soccer clubs around the world, have onboarded crypto companies as their major brand partners over the past few years.