How GameStop Inspired This Lingerie MMA League to Bet on Bitcoin

A lingerie blended martial arts league is gearing as much as purchase Bitcoin, following the mannequin established by $64 billion BTC treasury big Technique—however the league credit not Technique or outspoken founder Michael Saylor for the inspiration, however moderately online game retailer GameStop.

On Thursday, Lingerie Preventing Championships introduced that it plans to amass $2.23 million value of Bitcoin and add it to its treasury over the subsequent six months. 

Shaun Donnelly, founder and CEO of Lingerie Preventing Championships, instructed Decrypt that the transfer was impressed by seeing online game retailer turned meme inventory GameStop purchase Bitcoin in late Could.

“There’s been a few instances in LFC’s historical past the place we have mirrored what GameStop has finished, not deliberately, and positively to not the identical degree. However when there is a massive run on their inventory, we obtain a bit of little bit of the tail finish of it,” Donnelly defined. “In order that’s at all times been an organization that I’ve stored a watch on a bit of bit. After they made the announcement, it obtained my consideration.”

Lingerie Preventing Championships is an all-women’s blended martial arts group the place the athletes put on little or no however the fights are positively actual. The preventing league began researching the potential for buying Bitcoin a couple of month in the past, as Donnelly seen different public firms creating Bitcoin treasuries and spiking in worth. 

“I’ve at all times been a believer of if everybody begins doing one thing—I don’t imply if everybody jumps off a bridge, bounce with them—however at the very least it’s worthwhile to have a look at why these firms are doing it,” he stated. “We have to get within the sport now whereas we nonetheless can, as a result of if a few of the projections come true, there is likely to be some extent the place you simply cannot get into the market anymore.”

The development comes off the again of Technique, previously MicroStrategy, seeing roaring success after it adopted Bitcoin as its major treasury reserve asset in 2020. Technique’s inventory is now up greater than 2,569% since its first buy, in keeping with TradingView.

Because of this, a slew of non-crypto native corporations—from hashish firms to distilleries—have began including Bitcoin to their steadiness sheets. However it was GameStop saying the acquisition of $512 million of Bitcoin that made Lingerie Preventing Championships think about the method, with Donnelly additionally consulting shut mates earlier than making the choice.



“Is it leaping on a development a bit of bit? After all. However it’s additionally a perception that what’s occurred with crypto, with Bitcoin particularly, and what we foresee taking place sooner or later… it’s type of only a pure factor to do at this level,” Donnelly stated.

Donnelly referenced projections he’s heard that Bitcoin may surpass $1 million in worth by 2035. That date is critical, because the preventing group sees its BTC treasury as a 10-year play—as a result of Donnelly stated he heard that the final Bitcoin might be mined in 2035. Nonetheless, the final of Bitcoin’s 21 million provide is anticipated to be mined nearer to 2140. 

Donnelly added that his firm thought of different cryptocurrencies as treasury belongings, however he believes none have the “identical energy that Bitcoin has” by way of worth motion and advertising and marketing consideration. 

That stated, the preventing group is open to taking sponsorships from crypto firms, together with meme cash, and is trying to settle for crypto as a cost on its web site.

How did LFC get right here?

Donnelly had simply wrapped up filming “Tight,” a 2011 mockumentary sequence about an all-girl porn star rock band, when actor Joel Chanin requested to borrow cash to buy Bitcoin. The then-writer and director laughed at Chanin, claiming that it was nugatory since you couldn’t use it in real-world shops.

“I used to be very flawed and keen to confess my errors,” Donnelly laughed, including that Chanin nonetheless works with him and serves as Coach Joel Kane within the Lingerie Preventing Championships. It is value noting that Donnelly nonetheless doesn’t personally maintain Bitcoin.

Within the mid-to-late 2000s, Donnelly was a producer for Playboy TV, creating hits like “The Boy Nexxt Door”—a TV present about a man who needs to pursue a profession within the grownup movie trade. By 2013, he created the primary version of Lingerie Preventing Championships, which was initially shot in the same mockumentary fashion to “Tight” with a pretend viewers.

“I do not assume the cable firms understood the joke, as a result of they introduced it as a sporting occasion, and it did nicely. So that they ordered extra,” Donnelly stated, including that they bought actual tickets for the group’s second occasion. “We had been in that odd place of turning into the very factor we had been making enjoyable of.”

Quite a few profitable occasions later, the Lingerie Preventing Championships went public through a reverse merger with Cala Vitality Corp. Nonetheless, Donnelly stated, Cala Vitality Corp did not ship on a lot of guarantees made through the merger, which left the group in a sticky place.

“I would by no means actually had an curiosity in having a public firm, and positively did not know what I used to be doing. So I made each mistake you may make as a public firm,” Donnelly instructed Decrypt. “I introduced in each poisonous lender you possibly can. At one level, we had six in that house. We’ve purchased out 5 of them, and the one which stayed are followers of what we do.”

The only real remaining lender, known as Octus Fund, helped Lingerie Preventing Championships increase the $2.23 million to purchase Bitcoin, he stated. Proper now, the group is solely centered on its upcoming fights in London and Cardiff, however afterwards, it could be open to elevating extra capital for added Bitcoin buys.

“As a public firm, you’re actually two firms,” Donnelly defined. “On the general public facet, it raises curiosity in us and all of that stuff. On the enterprise facet of issues, if [Bitcoin] continues to rise, as is our perception and prediction, it provides us entry to further funds, ought to we’d like them.”

The burning query on the core of the general public firm treasury development is: Can a public firm abdomen a 76% drop in Bitcoin’s worth, because the main cryptocurrency noticed within the 12 months after setting its then-peak worth of round $69,000 in November 2021?

Donnelly stated within the case of Lingerie Preventing Championships, the corporate gained’t be reliant on Bitcoin as its major income generator—because of a YouTube channel of 837,000 subscribers, a touring present, and new broadcast offers. He believes that this may cut back the strain put upon the corporate if Bitcoin’s worth had been to drop.

Nonetheless, this privilege is probably not the case for each firm hopping on the Bitcoin treasury development. Some specialists have warned that corporations could also be compelled to promote their digital belongings, doubtlessly at a loss, to repay buyers.

Edited by Andrew Hayward