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Scottish School Blazes Trail With Bitcoin Fees
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The story of a school – Lomond School – accepting cryptocurrency as payment for fees illustrates how these entities are becoming more mainstream.
In what is possibly a world first, a co-educational private
school in Scotland is allowing parents to pay their children’s
fees with bitcoin.
Lomond School, an independent day and boarding school in
Helensburgh for those aged three to 18, said fees can be
paid using the cryptocurrency as early as the autumn term of
2025.
The story is an example of how cryptocurrencies, while still
controversial in some eyes, and relatively volatile, are becoming
more “mainstream”
in certain spheres, such as in the wealth management and banking
sector.
“After engaging with current parents of those children attending
Lomond School and international families at various school
recruitment fairs over the years, we recognised there was a
demand to implement an additional alternative payment system for
those who desire it,” school principal Claire Chisholm told
WealthBriefing. “International parents and boarding
students will be drawn to paying in bitcoin as it is a good way
to pay for fees from abroad without currency exchange fees and
funds can be sent quickly and securely. As bitcoin is more widely
adopted in the UK, our local parents can also pay this way too
and we have parents interested in doing this.”
“This initiative will especially benefit families in countries
where transferring money can be challenging. To our knowledge, we
are the first independent day and boarding school in the UK to
offer this option, and we believe many others will follow suit,”
she said.
Risks are managed through phased implementation, conversion
options, and partnerships with secure service providers,
including CoinCorner and Musquet, which are registered with the
Financial Conduct Authority.
To mitigate currency risk, the school will initially convert
bitcoin payments directly into sterling. Assuming bitcoin gains
broader acceptance in the UK and worldwide, the school will look
to build a bitcoin asset reserve, the school said in a
statement.
Chisholm said the adoption of bitcoin as a means of payment fits
with the innovative philosophy of the school. “We are pioneers in
Scotland, being the first boarding school to have a mixed
boarding house, allowing brothers and sisters to live together
under one roof. We also introduced the International
Baccalaureate in response to requests for a more
globally-recognised qualification from our day and boarding
community,” she said.
Bitcoin has been around for more than a decade, and it continues
to attract attention. In May 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz
made history by purchasing two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin widely
considered to be the first commercial use of the cryptocurrency
token (source: Saffery Trust, May 2024).
In the US, a survey in January by Security.org found that
cryptocurrency ownership had nearly doubled in the three years
since the end of 2021. In 2025, about 28 per cent of US adults,
or about 65 million people, own cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
A study by Chainanalysis.com said that its 2024 Global Adoption
Index showed that central and Southern Asia, and Oceana led the
world in adopting cryptocurrencies. It has been argued that in
traditionally poorer nations, where the public distrust banks and
governments, there is more appetite for such alternatives. On 9
June 2021, El Salvador’s government made bitcoin legal tender
within the country, and the law took effect on 7 September that
year. The International Monetary Fund warned the central American
country against the move, arguing that such adoption raised
legal, financial and macroeconomic issues.
Over the past 12 months, the price of bitcoin has risen by about 20 per cent to $82,939 per coin, as of 6:18 pm, UK time, on Friday. Prices rose as high as more than $106,000 per coin in mid-December last year; they have fallen to some extent in line with the selloff to the US equities market. Debate continues as to whether bitcoin is really any sort of safe-haven asset, akin to gold, or speculative tech stock.