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.