Bitcoin for Babe Ruth? Sports auction house will accept crypto

Goldin Auctions announced it will accept Bitcoin and Ether in its sports memorabilia auctions, becoming one of the first physical auction houses to embrace cryptocurrencies.

On Tuesday, the sports memorabilia auction house Goldin Auctions announced that it would accept cryptocurrency, making it one of the first brick-and-mortar auction houses to follow the runaway success of auction house Christie’s, which accepted Ether for a onetime, $69 million sale earlier this month. Goldin, which is known for high-value items, including a Lebron James rookie card that sold for $1.8 million last year, decided to accept Bitcoin and Ether based on “demand from consumers,” says Ross Hoffman, Goldin’s chief executive officer. “Look, we think a big macro theme that we’re seeing is folks that are hedging,”  he continues. “One, against inflation, and two, there’s interest in alternative investing.” Crypto currency and sports collectibles, Hoffman concludes, have “a pretty large overlap.”