Mike Tyson Bitcoin cash machines coming to Las Vegas

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has joined forces with a cryptocurrency firm to bring bitcoin ATMs to Las Vegas. The deal with Conexus and Bitcoin Direct is believed to be the first celebrity partnership in the bitcoin industry.

Conrad Huss, president of Conexus, revealed that the first of several Mike Tyson Bitcoin ATMs will be unveiled at an unspecified location within the next two weeks. According to Coindesk's bitcoin ATM map, it will be the seventh bitcoin cash machine to be installed in the city.

"We are excited to announce the Mike Tyson Bitcoin, which marks the first celebrity partnership in the bitcoin industry," Huss said.

News that the boxing legend would be throwing his name behind a bitcoin ATM venture emerged in July, when Tyson publicised the project on Twitter with a link to the Mike Tyson Bitcoin ATM website. Few details were given by the site about what the service will offer, though its slogan stated: "Mike Tyson's fastest KO in the ring was 30 seconds. The Mike Tyson Bitcoin ATM can turn your cash into bitcoin in under 20 seconds."

The connection to a third company has previously led figures within the cryptocurrency community to suggest that Tyson could be the victim of a scam. Writing on the Silicon Angle blog, Duncan Riley noted that the domain for the project's website is registered to Peter Klamka, CEO of Bitcoin Brands.

According to Google Finance, Bitcoin Brands currently has a share price of just $0.0001 and a market cap of $6,780 (£4,367).

Riley concluded: "The best guess here is that Mike Tyson has been suckered into a deal by a fast talker who has promised him millions if he gets involved and lends his name to the enterprise, despite the company behind the enterprise having a market cap that is probably about half the value of one bottle of the champagne Tyson prefers to drink."