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The club’s management is also known for its innovative approaches and willingness to embrace new technologies and strategies, which made it easy for them to go all in on Bitcoin.
Real Bedford FC (RBFC), a non-league English football club based in the United Kingdom, has recently acquired more Bitcoin (BTC) to increase its treasury. The Peter McCormack-owned club said it spent $4.5 million to buy 66.9 BTC on Sunday evening.
The crypto assets were acquired at an average price of $67,220 per BTC, bringing the club’s total Bitcoin reserve to around 82.7 BTC. So far, RBFC, also known as the “Bitcoin football team”, has spent a total of $5.37 million on its Bitcoin treasury.
Use of Bitcoin Holdings
The club plans to use 15.8 BTC from its holdings to sponsor football-related endeavors while the remaining funds will be used to improve its treasury.
Real Bedford has acquired 66.9 BTC for $4,500,420.69 @ avg price of ~$67,220 per #bitcoin.
As of today, @realbedford HODLs 82.7 $BTC acquired for ~$5.37m @ avg price of ~$64,925 per bitcoin.
15.8 BTC is held in float for football matters, the rest is held in our treasury.
— Peter McCormack 🏴☠️ (@PeterMcCormack) July 21, 2024
RBFC started its Bitcoin acquisition journey in June last year when its chairman, McCormack, announced plans to revitalize the dying football team and the deprived town of Bedford through the adoption of Bitcoin. He hoped the move would appeal to the crypto community and thereby generate a larger fan base for the club.
To further its support for the crypto asset, the club branded its jersey with the BTC logo, with “Satoshi” written on the back of its orange-colored shirts. It also accepts Bitcoin payments for all its merchandise.
As hoped, the football club has captured the interest of the crypto community, with the likes of the Winklevoss twins investing $4.5 million in the team in April 2024. McCormack announced it received the Bitcoin investment from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss through their company Winklevoss Capital. The duo was also named co-owners of the English club.
New Partnerships and Sponsorships
A few months after the first investment from the Winklevoss brothers, the club secured another partnership within the crypto industry. On July 1, Coinspeaker reported that RBFC inked a multi-year sponsorship deal with Gemini, a crypto exchange founded by both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, further deepening their relationship with the club.
Although RBFC is still a non-league football club, it has gained popularity over the years. While the club is not as well-known as other English football clubs such as Manchester United or Liverpool, it has a dedicated fanbase and a strong community presence.
The club’s management is also known for its innovative approaches and willingness to embrace new technologies and strategies, which made it easy for them to go all in on Bitcoin.
Last year, RBFC won the United Kingdom’s South Midlands League for the 2023 season. The match was attended by many fans from around the world, including Vancouver and Beijing, who flew in to support the club.
Broader Context of Bitcoin Investments
Meanwhile, the club’s latest Bitcoin purchase comes at a time when institutional investors have developed a strong appetite for the crypto asset. Recently, “Asian MicroStrategy” Metaplanet announced that it had purchased an additional 20.381 BTC worth around 200 million yen ($1.27 million) on Monday, July 22, to complete its initial plan of acquiring 1 billion yen worth of the crypto asset.
The Japanese company now holds a total of 245.992 BTC, which was purchased at an average price of 9.96 million yen (about $63,250) per BTC. The Tokyo-listed firm took a page from MicroStrategy’s playbook in May when it announced plans to embrace Bitcoin as its reserve asset.
However, data from Bitcointreasuries.net shows that Metaplanet made its first Bitcoin purchase in April before the announcement and has since then continued to increase its holdings.
Buoyed by the news of its latest Bitcoin purchase, Metaplanet’s shares rose 21%, as shown on Google Finance data.
