Top 10 Athletes Cash In on Crypto Sponsorships
BITmarkets has published a study on the top 10 athletes in crypto partnerships. The study, titled 'Crypto and Elite Athletes: More Than Just a Sponsorship,' explores what happened when crypto's rapid rise met the world of elite sport.
The study focuses on individual athletes across football, basketball, American football, baseball, and tennis. It ranks Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Shohei Ohtani, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Trevor Lawrence, and Shaquille O'Neal among the top 10, alongside Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala.
The study compares how these partnerships worked, what each athlete brought to them, and how the market changed after 2022. It notes that global crypto sports sponsorship spending exceeded $742 million in 2022 across 230 active contracts, with the NBA seeing a significant increase in crypto sponsorship revenue, from $43rd-largest corporate sponsor to second-largest within a single season.
The study highlights the shift towards a more cautious model following the market disruption of 2022. High-profile corporate failures and tighter regulatory scrutiny reduced the appetite for sweeping promotional campaigns, leading to a focus on compliant financial infrastructure, clearer disclosure, and practical uses for the technology.