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On September 21st, the Philadelphia 76ers became the second NBA team to ink a cryptocurrency-related sponsorship on its in-game uniform.
So far, the partnership has proven to be lucrative. The most traditional basketball team in Philadelphia signed a 6-year deal with the crypto exchange, amassing $10 million dollars per season.
On top of having its brand imprinted on the left shoulder of players’ jerseys, Crypto.com and the Sixers collaborated on the introduction of the basketball team’s first non-fungible token, or NFT, which is now available for purchase on Crypto.com.
How FTX Crash Can Affect The Philadelphia 76ers
Since FTX’s collapse – the entire cryptocurrency industry is going through one of the most fragile moments in its history. The catastrophic fall down from FTX affected every other exchange. Companies like Binance and Coinbase had a major decrease in value.
Blockfi, another cryptocurrency exchange from Asia, is also on verge of bankruptcy, after the major market crash.
Meanwhile, the Sixer’s sponsor also had a close relationship with FTX.
Crypto.com officials stated that the company will likely lose about $10 million in the process. But the actual loss could be a lot bigger than that.
The Cronos token owned by Crypto.com dropped by over 40% in the past week. At the same time, the company’s management recently misplaced $400 million of Crypto.com’s Ether assets in the wrong wallet.
The similarities between FTX and Crypto.com raise concerns for investors. Both companies are privately held and based outside of American grounds.
On top of that, both FTX and Crypto.com were cryptocurrency’s “superstar” exchanges. Until very recently, these companies had a major involvement with celebrity actors and sponsorships in major sports events like NBA, UFC, and the NFL.
Following Crypto.com’s apparent mishandling of the chaotic series of events, Professor and Cryptocurrency market analyst Adam Cochran stated on a Twitter thread that the best thing to do would be to “get your money out of” the exchange.
“If they are full reserves they shouldn’t care if you sit on the sidelines for a week, but their handling of this hasn’t met the bar.” Cochran wrote, talking about the mishandling of Ether by the exchange.
In the unlikely event that Crypto.com follows FTX’s demise, the Philadelphia 76ers could not only lose a major sponsor but also miss out on the $40 million dollars they are still scheduled to receive from the exchange.
How FTX Is Bringing Down The Whole Market With It
FTX’s fall from grace is disastrous, to say the least.
On top of crazy rumors regarding a secret sex tape, and an “inside job” hack that drained $288 million worth of Ether – the company and its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried are under investigation for mishandling assets by two government authorities – the Bahamian and the American governments are currently preparing an advance against the exchange.
Sadly, the exchange is not going down alone. Along with it, the entire cryptocurrency market is seeing its lowest phase in over two years. On November 11, the global crypto market cap was worth 1.040 trillion dollars. Today, that number is below the trillion-dollar mark.
