TL:DR
•The Golden State Warriors have ended their $10 million sponsorship agreement with FTX, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday.
• The news comes after numerous sports franchises dropped their association with FTX over the past week.
• Rival NBA team Miami Heat also cut ties with the failed exchange over the weekend, putting its 19-year and $135 million sponsorship agreement to an end.
• Mercedes announced it would immediately remove FTX logos from its Formula One cars on Friday.
Woes for FTX
The FTX drama continues as the repercussions of the out-of-thin-air tokenomics of FTX and Alameda have come to light. After Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao brought the facts to everyone Sam Bankman-Fried was brought to light allegedly as a fraud and the result has become like a contagion infecting numerous other projects and exchanges.
The situation continues to be bad for now bankrupt centralized exchange FTX as more former partners pull the plug on their deals and relationships with the now disgraced company.
On Friday, the Golden State Warriors announced that they would be ending their $10 million sponsorship agreement with FTX, an exchange that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier that day. This news comes after a string of other sports franchises—including the rival NBA team Miami Heat decided to drop their association with FTX as well over the past week.
FTX has been mired in controversy since it launched last year. The exchange has been accused of market manipulation and wash trading, and has been the subject of multiple lawsuits. In addition, FTX is bankrolled by Sam Bankman-Fried, a once revered member of the crypto community but now a very controversial figure in the same industry.
Not all that shines…
Previously, despite all of the controversy, FTX managed to secure high-profile partnerships with several major sports franchises. In addition to the Warriors and Heat, FTX also had deals with Formula One racing team Mercedes and English Premier League soccer club Leeds United. FTX was able to secure deals with major brands, celebrities, and banks all due to promises given and business practices based upon a spurious token -FTT.
These partnerships began to unravel last week after FTX was scrambling to recover from Binance CEO Zhao decision to offload all of the FTT tokens Binance held. This led to a domino effect of other investors jumping ship and the house of cards created by Bankman-Fried began tumbling down. Within less than a week the company that was once revered was in tatters.
The Warriors had initially said that they would stand by FTX, but on Friday—the same day that FTX filed for bankruptcy—the team announced that it too would be ending its sponsorship agreement.
It remains to be seen how much longer FTX will be able to stay afloat or if the exchange can survive this at all. The exchange has lost most of its high-profile partnerships and is facing numerous legal challenges. It is unclear if Sam Bankman-Fried still has deep enough pockets to aid or if he will at all, however, FTX may be able to weather this storm with its new CEO. Only time will tell, but it is a definitive fact that the reputation of the company is definitely damaged.
The Warriors have ended their short-lived partnership with embattled cryptocurrency exchange FTX. This news comes after a string of sports franchises—including rival NBA team Miami Heat—have severed ties with FTX over the past week. It remains to be seen how much longer FTX will be able to stay afloat, but with deep pockets backing the exchange, it may be able to weather this storm.
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