Turkish amateur club signs player with bitcoin

Harunustaspor said it signed Omer Faruk Kiroglu with the cryptocurrency to make the team known "in Turkey and the world."

Omer Faruk Kiroglu (L) was signed using bitcoin, which Harunustaspor says is a world-first.
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Omer Faruk Kiroglu (L) was signed using bitcoin, which Harunustaspor says is a world-first.

A Turkish amateur league football club has transferred a player by paying him with bitcoin, in what the club chairman said is the first signing of a player in cryptocurrency.

Harunustaspor chairman Haldun Sehit told Turkey's Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that the club paid Omer Faruk Kiroglu 0.0534 bitcoin (2,000 Turkish lira) in addition to $540 (2,000 Turkish lira).

Sehit said the club decided to sign Kiroglu with the cryptocurrency to make the team known "in Turkey and the world."

Sehit said: "God willing, bitcoin will bring us the championship."

Harunustaspor competes in the first division of the amateur league in Sakarya, a city about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Istanbul.

Turkish government's warning

Bitcoin has been on a highly volatile track in the last few months. After hitting an all-time high just shy of $20,000 on December 17 on the Bitstamp platform, it plunged more than 50 percent over the ensuing month to below $10,000, but has since stabilised to just shy of $11,000.

Turkey's government has warned against the use of the cryptocurrency, saying it carries risks as no legal foundations were available for such transactions.

Authorities around the world, particularly in Asia, have attempted to rein in the global boom in trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies – a form of digital money created and maintained by its users.

European Union states and legislators agreed last month on stricter rules to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing on exchange platforms for bitcoin and other virtual currencies.

"This is a first for me and for the world," Kiroglu said. "As my chairman said, we are doing something new. I am open to new things."

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