Former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Ben Askren has changed his twitter handle to mention Bitcoin’s upcoming halving. With over 300k followers, Askren, who has long been known to show support for the asset, has often made related comments on his Twitter account, including saying that he had bought several assets on the eToro platform. 

Askren caused headlines for once saying that “XRP is a scam” - a sentiment that other prominent figures have displayed as well. The Litecoin Foundation had also sponsored Askren for UFC 235 in January 2019.

The UFC is just one of the many sporting entities that are showing increasing interest in digital currencies and related applications. Dapper Labs, which built the popular CryptoKitties DApp, is working with the UFC to tokenize brand related collectibles.The next halving is expected to occur in May, roughly around the 13th of the month. Block rewards will be reduced from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC, and the estimated price to mine 1 Bitcoin will go up to $12,000. In addition to the reduced supply that the halving brings, the increase in mining costs, investors hope, will push up the price of Bitcoin.