US national figure skating body adopts Bitcoin donations

The United States national governing body for the sport of figure skating, the U.S. Figure Skating, is the latest organization in the country to enable donations in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

The association has partnered with the enterprise-level donation platform Engiven in order to start accepting donations and gifts in cryptocurrency, the U.S. Figure Skating announced on Tuesday. The organization initially revealed its plans to enable cryptocurrency donations in September 2021.

The new donation payment option is immediately available on the U.S. Figure Skating’s website via Engiven’s platform, featuring donations in major cryptocurrencies like BTC, Ether (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), as well as stablecoins like USD Coin (USDC) and PAX Gold (PAXG).

“U.S. Figure Skating now allows gifts of cryptocurrency for any of its major funds. Gifts of cryptocurrency are eligible for tax relief and can help U.S. Figure Skating to create programming for athletes,” the association’s website reads.

According to the announcement, Engiven automatically exchanges donated crypto into the United States dollar, transferring the funds immediately to U.S. Figure Skating. “U.S. Figure Skating is the first national governing body in the U.S. that will accept gifts in multiple cryptocurrencies,” the announcement notes.

Related: Crypto donations jumped nearly 16x in 2021, new report says

U.S. Figure Skating executive director Ramsey Baker noted that the introduction of the donation options comes in line with the association continuing to look for new and innovative ways to provide funding to its athletes, clubs, programs and initiatives.

“Allowing our supporters to give to U.S. Figure Skating using cryptocurrency makes sense in today’s quickly changing financial marketplace.”

Baker added that the more avenues available for current and new donors to support the organization, the more U.S. Figure Skating would be able to directly support the athletes and the many programs that serve its members.