Turkish club Harunustaspor completes a transfer using bitcoin

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Omer Faruk Kiroglu (left) signs for Harunustaspor after being paid in bitcoin in the presence of club president Haldun Sehit (Image: turkish-football.com)

Bengaluru, January 31: A Turkish club signed a player by paying him in bitcoin, becoming the first team to use the cryptocurrency to complete a transfer.

Harunustaspor acquired the services of Omer Faruk Kiroglu for 0.0524 BTC (Rs 33,000 approx). The club also paid him 2,500 in Lira (Rs 42,000 approx). The signing cost the club 4,500 Lira in total. Harunustaspor is a Sakarya First Division Group B club in Turkey. Sakarya is a province and the club is only an amateur side.

Omer Faruk Kiroglu shows off the bitcoin transfer (Image: Twitter)

Club president Haldun Sehit was hopeful that the innovative signing will increase the Harunustaspor's popularity and profile. "This is a first in Turkey and the world," Haldun Sehit was quoted as saying by turkish-football.com. "We are proud of this achievement and know it will raise our profile here, internationally and among the community."

Kiroglu, whose age and playing position is unknown, was overjoyed on being part of history. "I hope it works out for both sides. It is a first for myself, a first in the world. It is an honour and as the boss said, it is innovative. This is the future. As someone open to new technology it made sense," he told turkish-football.com.

Cryptocurrency bitcoin was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto (Nakamoto's identity is not known to the world and it's only an alias). It's a digital form of currency exchange and works without a central bank.

Over the past couple of months, the price of bitcoin has suddenly risen. One bitcoin is worth Rs 6.3 lakh approximately today. However, the currency is unregulated and can drop or rise at any time.

The currency is illegal in many countries and is an illegal tender in India too. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley recently said the government is awaiting an expert's report on the cryptocurrency before deciding on whether to ban it or not.

However, many European countries are open to trading in bitcoin. Some of those countries include Turkey, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.