Bentley University to Start Accepting Bitcoin for Tuition Payment
Bentley University has revealed that it will now accept cryptocurrencies for tuition payments. In an announcement made on May 3, 2022, the Waltham-based institution stated that it was partnering with Coinbase to give its students the option of paying for their tuition fees using crypto.
Tutoring Into the Future with Cryptocurrencies
According to the announcement, Bentley University students will now have the option to pay their tuition fees in either Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), or USD Coin (USDC).
The university is also making plans to begin accepting gifts and donations in the form of crypto.
This latest move is seen as a reaffirmation of Bentley’s longstanding commitment to become a trailblazer in the early adoption of emerging technologies and innovations that could potentially change the business world.
Speaking about the momentous decision, Bentley University’s President, E. LaBrent Chrite, said:
“Bentley University is at the forefront in preparing business leaders with skills and knowledge to succeed in the changing world economy. We are proud to embrace this technology that our students are learning about, which will soon transform the global business landscape they are about to enter.”
Number of Universities Accepting Crypto Slowly Growing
Bentley University has become just the fourth American university to embrace crypto payments, after King’s College in New York, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Globally, only a handful of educational institutions currently accept crypto payments. These universities include the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland, the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, the FTP University in Vietnam, and the University of Cumbria in the UK.
Bentley University’s decision to embrace crypto came about in large part because of a Pew Research Center report that indicated that more than 41 million Americans had already either invested, traded, or used one form of crypto or the other.
The university’s move acknowledges the increasing importance of crypto, especially BTC, in the world’s economy.
This is also not the first time Bentley University has dabbled with crypto. In 2021, the university created a series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to commemorate the induction of its former women’s basketball coach, Barbara Stevens, into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Additionally, 22-year-old Bentley student Alex Kim was an early crypto adopter. Now popularly known as Crypto Kim, Alex started investing in BTC while still in high school.
Last year, he launched the Bentley Blockchain Association, which only a few months after its creation had grown to 257 members.
Alex Kim is set to speak at NFT.NYC, the world’s foremost NFT-focused event set to happen in June 2022.
Bitcoin at the Markets
Meanwhile, BTC is currently trading at $39,011, a 1.58% increase in the last 24 hours. Simultaneously, the world’s leading cryptocurrency recorded a trading volume just north of $33 billion and had a live market cap slightly above $742 billion.
And with the Federal Open Markets Committee(FOMC) meeting set to commence on May 4, 2022, analysts are anxiously waiting to see how a new interest rate hike cycle might affect Bitcoin’s price strength.
