Crypto and sports have forged a strong partnership over the last several years. The famous Staples Center in Los Angeles was renamed the Crypto.com Arena in 2021 and the Miami Heat played at FTX arena for a few years—though that center has since changed its name.

And it’s not just arenas that have partnered with crypto firms. Nearly every major Formula 1 team has or has had a crypto sponsor at some point. Formula 1 and crypto have a lot in common—They’re international, exciting, and involve money.

Several blockchain companies have joined forces with Formula 1 teams. Here are some of the biggest partnerships out there.

Crypto.com – The Biggest Kid on the Blockchain

Perhaps the biggest crypto investor in sports at the moment, Crypto.com has been investing heavily in Formula 1 for a few years now. In March 2021, the site announced that it had struck a multi-year deal with Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™. This was big news as this was the first time in more than 60 years that Aston Martin had fielded an F1 team.

Since then, the two have collaborated on several NFT drops inspired by the team’s cars The latest collection featured four key components of the cars—the front wing, rear wing, steering wheel, and halo. Each NFT was meticulously designed based on official data directly from Aston Martin.

In June 2021, Crypto.com announced that they had agreed to a $100 million five-year sponsorship deal with Formula 1. Under the agreement, the crypto exchange got a presence at all Formula 1 events and trackside slots at races. Additionally, the company will be sponsoring a new trophy at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Less than a year later, in February 2022, it was announced that Crypto.com would become the official title partner of the Miami Grand Prix as part of a new nine-year deal.

Socios.com – Bringing Fans and Teams Together

Aston Martin has been busy finding new sponsors since its return to Formula 1. Another crypto sponsor who has answered the call is Socios.com. Socios.com is a website dedicated to granting teams control over their digital assets and allowing them to offer tokens directly to fans.

Alongside Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo also became one of the first Formula 1 teams to launch its own fan tokens. The two join other European teams including FC Barcelona, Manchester City, Paris Sait-Germain, and AC Milan in offering fan tokens. Although many of said clubs have large FIAT-betting sponsors supporting them, like 1XBET in the case of FC Barcelona, it’s promising to see that they’re steering towards crypto space and accepting new ventures. Ownership of the tokens allows fans to take part in votes, earn VIP rewards, and get access to exclusive promotions.

Bybit – Setting the Pace

Possibly the largest crypto-based sponsorship in Formula 1 to date, Bybit struck a deal with Red Bull Racing for a whopping $150 million over three years. One of the things that made this deal special, though, was that the fees would be paid in a combination of fiat currency as well as BitDAO tokens.

Bybit aims to broaden Red Bull’s fan engagement via its function as a crypto exchange and will act as an issuer of fan tokens and an incubator for Red Bull Racing as part of the deal. This allows Bybit to help the team distribute its own digital assets while supporting its other initiatives.

Red Bull Racing CEO Christian Horner was excited about the deal, saying that Bybit had the “passion to exist at the forefront of technological innovation, to set the competitive pace, and to disrupt the status quo.”

Tezos – Looking for a Home

Red Bull has been courting several crypto sponsors and Tezos is proudly displayed on the team’s cars and helmets. As part of the agreement, Red Bull Racing also launched the Team’s first range of NFTs exclusively on the Tezos blockchain. While Tezos ended the deal after only one year, they have maintained a sponsorship of another Formula 1 team.

In 2021, McLaren signed a deal last year with Tezos to build an NFT platform for the team. This was an ambitious project and the first McLaren Racing digital collectible was the team’s 2021 season car, the MCL35M. The car was released as a series of 22 collectible NFTs. Each of these represented one component that could be assembled into a 3D model.

Fantom – Building a Brand

At the beginning of 2022, Fantom Foundation announced that it would be sponsoring the Italian Formula 1 racing team, Scuderia Alpha Tauri. The Fantom logo featured prominently on the car’s nose and halo and the drivers’ helmets showcasing the team’s commitment to the network. Fantom CEO Michael Kong stated that the partnership was important because “It puts a lot more eyeballs on Fantom since F1 is watched by hundreds of millions worldwide. This has partly been responsible for user growth on the Fantom network.”

Binance – Climbing to the Top

A month later, in February 2022, BWT Alpine announced its own crypto sponsorship with Binance.com. As an official partner, Alpine launched its token, $ALPINE, on the Binance Launchpad as a BEP-20 utility token. To commemorate the launch, and to reward BWT Alpine fans, 280,000 $ALPINE Tokens were airdropped to BWT Alpine F1 newsletter subscribers.

Token holders are able to take part in fan voting sessions to influence certain decisions of the team. Examples include voting for the 2022 Alpine Esports jersey worn by drivers voting for the Alpine Esports livery and circuit used on the team’s simulator. Alpine in the meantime also partnered up with QAN to build their blockchain platform for fan engagement.

OpenSea – The Leader in NFTs

The biggest NFT marketplace on the web, OpenSea was a relative late-comer to the F1 sponsorship game. However, in November 2022, they changed all that when they decided to sponsor Haas F1 Team. OpenSea will function as the team’s official NFT Marketplace Partner and allow the team to deliver unique, best-in-class Web3 experiences.

The Road Ahead

While the crypto market might be sluggish at the moment, Formula 1 doesn’t seem deterred. In October 2022, the group filed eight trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering a range of cryptocurrency, NFT, and metaverse products and services.

As the largest annual global sports series, Formula 1 is in a unique position to spearhead the mainstream adoption of crypto among sports teams, players, and leagues.