On November 17, the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) shocked the world with a massive $700 million 20-year agreement on the naming rights of the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
And now a week after the announcement, the Crypto.com CRO token price has doubled in value from $0.43 on Nov.17 to $0.76 on Nov. 25, according to CoinMarketCap.
Meltem Demirors, the Chief Strategy Officer CoinShares International Ltd noted on Twitter:
“The resulting PR doubled its token price and led to a $9 billion run-up in market cap”
Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Singapore founded in 2016 where you can buy, sell, borrow, lend, spend cryptocurrencies with their Visa debit card, and they recently added their own NFT marketplace where you can buy and sell NFTs.
CRO is the native token of the exchange and the holders within the platform will benefit from reduced fees in buying and selling cryptocurrencies, earning more interest as the holder lends his tokens, lower interest rates when borrowing money and a higher cashback in their Visa Card according to Crypto.com website.
Crypto.com is the 10th biggest cryptocurrency exchange by daily volume ($1.8 billion), and CRO is the 13th biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization ($21.3 billion) according to CoinMarketCap.
Will crypto mainstream adoption come from the sports industry？Crypto.com is not the only major crypto exchange moving into sports — FTX has also made partnerships this year.
In June, the exchange became the official crypto sponsor of Major League Baseball and they also bought the naming rights of the American Airlines Arena in Miami, renaming the venue to FTX Arena. And just last month, Binance Exchange partnered with the Italian soccer club SS Lazio, according to Forbes.
Crypto.com has also made previous partnerships with Formula 1, UFC, the French soccer club Paris Saint Germain (PSG), and the NBA basketball team Philadelphia 76ers.
Cryptocurrencies are in a stage of mainstreaming, and the largest cryptocurrency exchanges are investing in sports industry partnerships to increase their exposure to the billions of global sports fans.
With the surge in the price of the CRO token, investors appear to value the drive towards mainstream partnerships.
