While Fed Chairman Jerome Powell isn't bullish on cryptocurrency and bitcoin, in particular, saying that its volatility lowers its value, businesses and industries are embracing the digital currency as a form of payment.
The Oakland Athletics baseball team has become the latest organization to accept bitcoin. Right now, fans can purchase season-long access to suites at RingCentral Coliseum for a single bitcoin, which was worth about $55,000 as of Monday afternoon. Fans paying in U.S. dollars would shell out $64,800.
"I think we want to offer different options for our fans to transact, and we've been hearing from people on Twitter and through social media [and] emailing us that they wanted to transact with bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies," David Kaval, Oakland Athletics president, told Cheddar.
Thus far, the A's have not completed a crypto transaction, but Kaval said that there are three or four potential sales that the team expects to close on by Opening Day on April 1. Depending on the success of the program, the team may also begin to allow fans to use bitcoin to purchase items from concession stands and gift shops.
Kaval noted the stadium's proximity to the San Francisco Bay area, home to Silicon Valley where many of the world's biggest tech companies are headquartered.
For the A's, the team that pioneered the concept of "Moneyball" in Major League Baseball is confident in the trajectory of bitcoin and would likely hold onto the digital currency rather than converting it to cash.
"We think that there's obviously the chance that it continues to rise. Maybe it's an opportunity for [Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations] Billy Beane and [General Manager] David Forst, our baseball side, to go out and get some more players. We think it's a good way to diversify some of the things we're doing as a business and could give us a leg up on other businesses," Kaval noted.
If you're an A's fan and not absolutely crazy about spending tens of thousands of dollars to watch your team play from a suite, the stadium will be open at 20 percent capacity on Opening Day, allowing 11,000 spectators into the venue, and, depending on vaccination efforts, the number could be expanded by summer.
"It was encouraging to hear from Dr. Fauci that he thought by Fourth of July you could have maybe a return to more normalcy, and so obviously that's a big day for baseball with fireworks," Kaval said. "And having a full house around that time I think would be an incredible moment and way to celebrate getting through the pandemic and moving on into the new normal."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
