Phil Hellmuth is embracing poker’s growing relationship with cryptocurrency, with the 17-time WSOP bracelet winner planning to use Solana to fund most of his tournament entries at WSOP Paradise.
Hellmuth revealed his plans as the World Series of Poker’s partnership with Solana continues to move beyond simple sponsorship and into the way players actually pay to enter tournaments.
For a player whose WSOP career stretches back to the 1980s, buying into major poker tournaments with cryptocurrency represents quite a change.
Phil Hellmuth Backs Solana for WSOP Paradise
Hellmuth says he plans to use SOL when buying into most of the tournaments he plays at the 2026 WSOP Paradise festival.
That makes one of poker’s most recognisable players a high-profile example of the payment system introduced through the WSOP’s relationship with Solana.
Players were able to use cryptocurrency for tournament transactions during this summer’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
The system allows players to use supported digital currencies rather than relying exclusively on traditional payment methods when funding their tournament entries.
Now Hellmuth intends to put it to use himself when the WSOP heads to the Bahamas.
Solana’s WSOP Partnership Is About More Than Advertising
Crypto sponsorship in sport is nothing new.
What makes the WSOP arrangement more interesting is that Solana has become part of the tournament infrastructure rather than simply placing its branding around the tables.
The scale of that integration became clearer following the 2026 WSOP in Las Vegas. Solana payments at the 2026 WSOP reached $23 million, demonstrating how quickly players adopted the new payment option during the series.
Players were able to move substantial sums without relying entirely on cash, bank transfers or other conventional methods traditionally associated with major live tournaments.
Poker creates a particularly interesting use case.
A player competing throughout a major festival may need to fund numerous tournament entries, sometimes worth tens of thousands of dollars each.
High rollers can move considerably more.
Hellmuth Has Been Playing the WSOP for Nearly Four Decades
There is also something fitting about Hellmuth becoming part of the experiment.
Few active players have witnessed more changes in tournament poker.
Hellmuth won the WSOP Main Event in 1989, defeating Johnny Chan heads-up to become world champion.
At the time, tournament poker was still largely a cash-based casino game with little resemblance to the global online and livestreamed industry that exists today.
Hellmuth has since accumulated a record 17 WSOP bracelets while playing through the internet poker boom, televised poker’s rapid growth, the rise of livestream cash games and the emergence of cryptocurrency.
Using SOL to enter tournaments is simply the latest change.
Crypto Could Solve a Real Problem for Travelling Poker Players
Moving money has long been one of the less glamorous complications of playing high-stakes live poker.
Players travelling internationally need access to bankrolls large enough to cover tournament entries, accommodation and other expenses.
For someone playing a $25,000 or $100,000 event, that can create practical issues that recreational players rarely encounter.
Cryptocurrency potentially offers another way of moving those funds.
That does not mean digital currencies will replace conventional payment methods at major poker festivals, but the WSOP experiment demonstrates that there is genuine demand for alternatives.
Processing millions of dollars during a single tournament series is considerably more significant than simply putting a crypto logo on a poker table.
WSOP Paradise Provides the Next Test
WSOP Paradise will now provide another opportunity to see how widely players adopt crypto payments.
The Bahamas festival has become an important part of the World Series of Poker calendar, attracting many of the game’s biggest tournament players and some of the largest buy-ins outside Las Vegas.
Hellmuth will inevitably attract attention whenever he takes his seat.
This time, however, what happens before he reaches the table could be interesting too.
The Poker Brat has played through almost every major technological change poker has experienced.
At WSOP Paradise, he plans to buy his chips with crypto.
