After the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale became the first public auction to sell a Thoroughbred via cryptocurrency last year, one of the nation’s leading consignors, Taylor Made Sales, expanded the use of that medium by announcing that it has partnered this summer with Dello, a Montreal fintech company, to offer cryptocurrency payments to its customers. “Taylor Made has clients from all over the world,” the family operation’s Mark Taylor said. “We want to make things as easy as possible for them. Accepting crypto makes good business sense.” Last year, heading into the centennial anniversary of its signature yearling sale, Fasig-Tipton again made history by announcing its partnership with the app Crypto.com. Although now dealing with Swapp cryptocurrency via that app, at the end of the day, transactions were still paid out to sellers by Fasig-Tipton in U.S. dollars, and the sales were still recorded in official results in those units. “Fasig-Tipton aims to be a forward-thinking member of the Thoroughbred industry, and we [were] proud to be the first Thoroughbred auction company in the world to embrace cryptocurrency,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “Through these partnerships we will introduce individuals and parties that participate in the crypto space to the exhilarating world of horse racing for the very first time, and growing our sport is a priority of the utmost importance at Fasig-Tipton.” Ultimately, one horse sold for cryptocurrency at the 2021 Saratoga sale, a $100,000 Violence filly. She was purchased by Spendthrift Farm, an innovator in its own right within the Thoroughbred industry. “We talked to some people and got a little education on it and pulled the trigger,” Spendthrift president Eric Gustavson said. “In the moment, it was like any other sale. Then I realized, ‘Oh yeah, we’re buying this in crypto, this is crazy, this is going to be a big deal because this has never happened before.’ Hopefully this will continue to happen now [and] will be like a snowball . . . bring in some new people and really get the industry excited about it.” Taylor Made began accepting cryptocurrency payments for all its various services in July via Dello, a platform that enables sellers to accept cryptocurrency without ever having to convert it or handle it directly. The payments are settled in local currency, meaning a seller does not have to change their accounting procedures. Dello converts the crypto to local currency at the time of purchase, guaranteeing the seller receives the exact amount they charged, minus a small fee. “Dello provides merchants with a comfort zone for crypto acceptance,” company president Olivier Benloulou said in a press release. “We eliminate concerns about price volatility and tax issues, which have been two of the biggest barriers to the adoption of crypto-enabled payments. Our service enables merchants to venture into the world of crypto with fewer worries. It is an honor to work with a company like Taylor Made.”