FTX strikes sponsorship deal with Washington Wizards
FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the US, has added on to its list of sports partnerships by tying up with Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Washington Wizards and NHL Capitals teams as it seeks to draw in mainstream users to its platform.
The exchange, with a huge amount of funds and a billionaire as its owner, has been on a sponsorship spree which started with its deal for naming rights to the Miami Heats stadium which was followed by the international naming rights for Golden State Warriors, both of which were multi-million dollar deals.
Improved FTX Branding
It also has many top sports superstars on its sponsorship roster apart from backing the e-sports team TSM as it realizes that e-sports are also growing in a very strong and quick manner and likely to emerge as competition to many of the real-world sports.
Apart from helping to improve the branding of FTX and bringing the exchange to the attention of mainstream users, what these deals also do is turn the attention of the large investor, hedge fund companies, power brokers, and legislators to the company which would be useful for it in the long run as it seeks to navigate through legislation and regulations as well. Crypto firms all around the world are under the radar of many regulators and the exchanges and other crypto businesses need to tread carefully to make sure that they don’t rub those in power the wrong way and get caught out, as Binance has done.
Crypto and Regulation
FTX is known to be one of the most compliant and regulated crypto exchanges in the world and it needs to be so if it wants to carry on its business within the US for the long term and place itself in a position of power when crypto moves mainstream. FTX and other crypto firms in the US have also been pushing for a crypto regulatory framework and a controlling body that would involve both the CFTC and the SEC rather than coming directly under the SEC alone, as that would bring in a lot of pressure on the crypto firms and tokens as well.
This spending spree from FTX is likely to be associated with the need to grow its clout and network among the higher echelons of power so that it would be able to get its voice heard as and when needed as the crypto industry and associated regulations reach a crucial phase.
