Cape Cod's Biggest Hospital Received an $800,000 Bitcoin Donation
2 min read
In these pandemic stricken times, it’s good to get a little optimism in the morning. On Friday, in the coastal town 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 Svengali?
The donation was not entirely out of the blue. According to Cape Cod Healthcare’s 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 would 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 their accounts to receive crypto, Cape Cod Healthcare has adopted a policy of immediately converting their Bitcoin to US dollars as soon as the transaction comes through. This way, they avoid any shortfall should Bitcoin suffer immediate pullbacks. After all, in spite of a robust performance in this week’s crypto markets, Bitcoin is still a high-risk asset.
Receiving crypto gifts
Cape Cod Healthcare’s 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 Bitcoin’s bull run reaching new heights every week, soon even your dentist might start accepting it.
