Crypto.com relies on sports to attract non-crypto audiences

Crypto.com wants to increase its sports sponsorship to reach a wider audience.

The company is geared towards sport as a driver to reach non-crypto enthusiasts and “will double down on our strategy,” said chief marketing officer Steven Kalifowitz Bloomberg News said on Sunday (May 5) ahead of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, which Crypto.com is sponsoring.

Crypto.com has put its name to this race since its debut in 2022, part of a 10-year, $10 million deal, the report said. The company is also a global sponsor of Formula 1 with a five-year contract worth $100 million.

In addition to auto racing, Crypto.com also has partnerships with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the Australian Football League. Hip-hop star Eminem recently hosted a commercial for the company during an NBA playoff game at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Kalifowitz told Bloomberg that his company's visibility has increased since it focused its marketing efforts on the sports world, and Crypto.com now has more than 100 million users.

The report stated this Crypto sponsorship of sporting events have been on the rise since FTX's demise in 2022.

This company had its own ties to the sports world, with athletes like Tom Brady and Shaquille O'Neal supporting the exchange Complaints from investors.

Last month, a group of these investors agreed to drop legal claims against Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX Exchange for his cooperation against the sports stars and other celebrities who were paid to promote the company.

According to the settlement, the plaintiffs believe Bankman-Fried has “knowledge and other information” that could be valuable to their case. As part of the agreement, Bankman-Fried would also hand over non-privileged documents detailing his assets and his investment in artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, along with an affidavit certifying his net worth as negative.

Meanwhile, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek noted last month that his company's venture capital arm has doubts about some of these high ratings what has been seen in the industry recently.

“We want the financial return,” Marszalek told Bloomberg in April. “Currently, the assessments provided by the project teams are very generous.”

The company has also been on a hiring spree, announcing last month that it was looking to hire 1,400 new employees. It's part of a recent wave of hiring in the crypto sector, with companies like Coinbase Global, Kraken, Binance and Gemini all recently adding positions.