Cape Cod's Biggest Hospital Received an $800,000 Bitcoin Donation

In brief

• Cape Cod's leading medical centre now accepts crypto.

• They opened a new crypto-ready account at the request of a longstanding benefactor.

• Crypto gifts could soon be widely accepted by all sorts of institutions reliant on public donations.

In these pandemic-stricken times, it's good to get a little optimism in the morning.

On Friday, on the coastal island of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, when staff at its leading not-for-profit medical centre Cape Cod Healthcare checked their email, they saw a message telling them to look in their newly established crypto-integrated bank account.

Inside was a surprise donation of Bitcoins amounting to $400,000. It was the second they‘d received from the same benefactor. The first came on January 28. Both transactions arrived less than a month since they’d started accepting crypto.

A benevolent crypto believer

The donation was not entirely out of the blue. According to Cape Cod Healthcares senior vice president and chief development officer Christopher Lawson, the longtime donor, who previously gifted them cash every year, originally sent them a feeler email in mid-January inquiring whether they could accept Bitcoin donations.

Speaking to The Boston Globe, Lawson said: “Before we responded, we had to make sure there were not any issues.” Lawson continued: “It required a good amount of research... My office probably spent a week or two doing our best to learn who else was doing this.”

Since priming its accounts to receive crypto, Cape Cod Healthcare has adopted a policy of immediately converting its Bitcoin to US dollars as soon as the transaction comes through. This way, it avoids any shortfall should Bitcoin suffer immediate pullbacks.

After all, in spite of a robust performance in this weeks crypto markets, Bitcoin is still a high-risk asset.

Setting up to receive crypto gifts

Cape Cod Healthcares crypto-primed account generates a personalized QR code for the donor to transfer funds with. Using this QR code anyone can transfer crypto funds into Cape Cod Healthcare at any time.

Lawson believes many soon start readying their accounts to receive crypto gifts. He said: “It is not widespread but it is becoming more mainstream. People are accumulating these assets, and they are looking at opportunities to donate them.”

Who knows what the year will bring？ With Bitcoins bull run reaching new heights every week, soon even your dentist might start accepting it.