Formula 1 has announced that Hong Kong-based Crypto.com will be an inaugural global partner for the new F1 Sprint series in 2021, with the first event taking place at the Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix on July 17.
Fast facts:
- In the new Sprint format, drivers will race 100km on the Saturdays of selected Grand Prix weekends, with the result determining the starting grid for the Sunday’s full-distance Grand Prix.
- As part of the global five-year sponsorship deal as official cryptocurrency sponsor and non-fungible token partner of F1, Crypto.com will have its logo trackside and present a new award, to be announced ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, according to an F1 statement.
- “Formula 1 is a sport deeply rooted in technological innovation and with a huge focus on performance and speed, so the parallel to the cryptocurrency industry is quite clear,” Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, told Forkast.News. “There’s a huge overlap between the cryptocurrency users who are into and are huge fans of Formula 1, as well as the Formula 1 audience that naturally is enthusiastic about crypto.”
- The deal is the latest in a series of sports sponsorships by cryptocurrency exchanges. Crypto.com is currently sponsoring the F1 team Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One, the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens and the Lega Serie A football league.
- This week, cryptocurrency exchange FTX — also Hong Kong-based — announced that American football star Tom Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen were taking equity stakes in it and would serve respectively as an FTX ambassador and an environmental and social initiatives adviser. The duo will also receive crypto as part of the multi-year partnership following FTX’s recent sports sponsorships, from Major League Baseball to e-sports organization TSM and a 19-year, US$135 million deal for naming rights to the home arena of the National Basketball Association’s Miami Heat.
Dhruv Tiketar contributed to reporting.