UPenn Becomes First Ivy League School to Accept Bitcoin as Tuition Fees

First Ivy League School to Accept Bitcoin as Tuition Fees

According to Bloomberg, the Ivy League’s new executive education program will accept the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin as one method of payment including Ethereum and USD Coin. The online course costs 3,800 US dollars and is expected to attract several thousand students per year.

The university worked with the blockchain economic consulting firm the Prysm Group to design the six-week program targeted at business and technology professionals hoping to learn about the economic underpinnings of blockchain and digital assets.

Wharton will use Coinbase Global Inc., the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, to accept the digital assets to cover the $3,800 tuition. Fiat currencies will be accepted, too.

Program Director Kevin Werbach said:

Universities Accepting Crypto as Payment

Wharton is not the first university to pilot cryptocurrency payments. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) gave out Bitcoin to its students in 2014, and other colleges have started letting students use crypto to pay tuition. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who graduated from Wharton in 1997, has been actively involved in the cryptocurrency world. Earlier this year, he influenced the mass purchase of meme coins like Dogecoin.

Another Wharton alum, Arthur Hayes, who started the BitMex exchange is currently under charges for allegedly failing to put in place sufficient anti-money laundering protections.

In March, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (ULBS) became the first higher education institution in Romania to enable students to use cryptocurrency to pay their university tuition fees.