Crypto Firms Scoring More Sport Sponsorships Amid Industry Revival

Cryptocurrency companies have reportedly reentered the sporting world amid a new resurgence in their industry.

As the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (Feb. 23), crypto firms are increasing their investments and sponsorships of sporting teams, in hopes of tapping into enthusiasm for the sector brought about in part by Donald Trump’s presidency.

Among the recent high-profile transactions included stablecoin group Tether’s purchase of a 5% stake in Juventus, Italy’s most successful football club. Meanwhile, crypto exchange Gato.io reached a branding deal with Formula One racing team Red Bull Racing.

The industry, as the report noted, has been enjoying a revival inspired partly by the 2024 election, which sent the pro-crypto Trump back to Washington. His win has helped bring the price of bitcoin to record levels, while Trump himself has launched his own meme coin.

The crypto sector had been ramping up its partnerships with sports teams during the last bull market for digital assets. Then came the collapse of FTX in the fall of 2022, leaving a number of teams and sports leagues high and dry.

So far this year, crypto companies have reached 22 sports-related deals, compared to 18 during the same period in 2022, the FT said, citing data from marketing agency SportQuake. The number of deals climbed to 117 last year, up from 93 in the prior year, but still lower than the 173 reached in 2022.

The average value of this year’s new deals comes to around $4.3 million, the report added, compared to $2.6 million in the same period in 2024. For the entirety of 2024 the value of new deals announced came to $305 million, up from $247 million the prior year but still less than half  the $681 million in 2022.

Writing about the shifting crypto landscape last week, PYMNTS noted that American financial institutions and payments businesses do not need to reinvent the wheel when it comes  to integrating digital assets into their financial systems.

“By observing how regulated economies successfully use digital assets — through tokenization, stablecoins and compliant DeFi models — American businesses and banks can position themselves competitively for the ongoing digital transformation of finance,” that report said.

Meanwhile, last week brought a few different signs of changing attitudes towards crypto in the U.S. For example, Coinbase announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was set to dismiss its enforcement case against the cryptocurrency company, subject to commissioner approval.

Also last week, Binance.US began accepting dollar-based deposits and withdrawals following a 19-month drought, one sparked by another SEC investigation.