Cryptocurrency and sports continue to collide in 2021, and the synergy between the two has proven to be fruitful in many ways.

The relationship between the sports world and various applications of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has gradually expanded in the past few years. The humble beginnings of simple sponsorship to establish early brand awareness for exchanges and payment platforms have gained recognition and cooperation among industries worldwide, and 2021 will see a variety of different use cases stand out.

From NBA basketball courts to European football stadiums, cryptocurrencies continue to expand their exposure to new users and markets. In this new year special, Cointelegraph highlighted the growing relationship between cryptocurrency and sports through 2021.

NFT is coming

In the past 12 months, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have become a household name. The entertainment industry has always been at the forefront of this expansion. Artists, musicians, celebrities, brands, institutions and content creators have taken the lead in the NFT boom, providing fans and collectors with their own unique digital collections.

Sports has always been the mainstay of the entertainment industry, providing unparalleled unscripted moments and leaving an indelible mark on fans all over the world.

In the past, unique collectibles and souvenirs allowed lucky fans to brag about their friends and family. The emergence of NFT has transformed it into a digital field where fans can acquire, trade and show off valuable NFTs on blockchain-driven markets and platforms.

The NBA has blazed a trail in this regard, turning the video highlights of season games into NFT collections, and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue through the NBA Top Shot platform.most Expensive NBA Top Shot NFT, A legendary card featuring LeBron James dunks, was sold for a staggering $230,000 in October 2020. These figures should not be underestimated. It will only get better in 2021.

The world of American football has also entered this field from the player and team level. Tom Brady wrote himself into the NFL history books and became a leader in business and entertainment, which is a by-product of his success on the court.

He made headlines in April, Launch your own NFT market Called autograph. The platform invited the biggest names in American sports, as well as Hollywood actors, musicians and other influential figures in the entertainment industry to cast and sell unique digital collections.

We are talking about golf superstar Tiger Woods, sprint legend Usain Bolt, skateboard idol Tony Hawk, American gymnast Simone Byers, and of course Brady himself. They have all provided to collectors around the world. Own unique NFT.

Coming next week @sign: I have eliminated five iconic skills and put them in a permanent series. This is the last one I did recently: varial 540. This technique has brought me a lot of whiplash in 30 years, but I have to see it through. @DraftKings pic.twitter.com/iK6T2vtTex

-Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) December 8, 2021

Brady’s long-time NFL partner Rob Gronkowski set a high standard with his championship series NFT Digital Transaction Card Auction Before the launch of Autograph. The series consists of four unique “GRONK Career Highlight Refractor Cards”, each with 87 digital editions for sale, and the fifth independent Career Highlight card is the prize card for this batch.

The auction lasted for two days. A total of 349 trading cards and one-time career highlight cards were sold to 95 different owners. The total transaction value of the auction is 1,014 Ether (Ethereum) Value of 1.8 million US dollars at the time of sale. Gronk continues to join Autograph to launch other NFTs.

British boxer Tyson Fury established himself as the most recent heavyweight after defeating Deontay Wilder again in October.After his success, the burly British boxer Launched its own NFT Auctioned at a price of $987,000.

In Europe, Sorare has become a well-known player in football NFT and fantasy sports. The Ethereum-driven market facilitates the casting and trading of NFTs, which are popular among football fans. Users can purchase and trade digital player cards that reflect the performance of real players. Collectors can use their digital player cards to form a team of five and compete in the fantasy league.

Socios is another major player in the field of European football NFT, digital trading cards and collectibles. The platform allows clubs to issue fan tokens on their proprietary blockchain, allowing fans to vote on club decisions (such as changing jerseys), access exclusive content, and participate in other community activities. In 2021, Socios has sold 250 million US dollars worth of fan tokens since its establishment, and the market value of the sports fan token space has already 60% increase in the past six months year.

Sports brands are also seeking to keep pace with the times. The rise of Metaverse has pushed the world’s two largest sports brands into space through strategic cooperation with industry participants.

Adidas Enter the NFT space By casting NFT as a digital token, Metaverse users can access digital Adidas wearable devices. NFT consists of 30,000 copies, mainly tokens, and these copies are auctioned. Its net sales at the opening weekend exceeded 11,300 ETH, which was worth $43 million at the time, as Metaverse users flocked to secure their Adidas stolen goods.

Can’t be (probably) nothing

10/10 pic.twitter.com/lHbwsthfZc

-adidas Originals (@adidasoriginals) December 20, 2021

Determined to keep up with the competition, Nike followed closely with the acquisition of RTFKT, one of the The largest collection of NFTs on Opensea, In order to cast your own Nike wearable devices and items in the growing Metaverse.

Seen by millions

Marketing and advertising is a big business. For a long time, the sports world has been the main means of reaching a large audience to market products, services and products. For decades, big brands have achieved tremendous results, and cryptocurrency companies and service providers have recently taken full advantage of it.

The Crypto.com brand can be seen on the following football fields Europe’s largest league, In large numbers Popular UFC Octagon And on the clamping circuit Formula One RoadshowThe company has signed sponsorship agreements with leagues, teams and organizations in all these fields to attract a large variety of audiences.

Cryptocurrency trader and entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried and its cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform FTX also established good relationships with the American sports world this year. FTX Obtain naming rights At the beginning of 2021, he transferred to the Miami Heat Stadium at a price of 135 million U.S. dollars, and the contract will last until 2040.

From our family to your family ?? pic.twitter.com/oHmg9VPIWF

-FTX Arena (@FTXArena) December 25, 2021

The exchange also secured prime time commercial airtime for the 2022 NFL Super Bowl (one of the largest sporting events in the United States) because it hopes to attract new users.

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Slam dunk Reached a multi-year agreement with the NBA to become the exclusive cryptocurrency platform partner of the league and its subsidiaries, related leagues and brands.

Rugby is a large-scale sport in South Africa, and the country’s Springbok national team has a strong support base, namely the defending world champion. When the British and Irish Lions visited South Africa, the cryptocurrency exchange Luno ran a commercial ad featuring Rassie Erasmus, director of Rugby Springboks Coach The audience talked about “how easy it is to deal with Bitcoin” because the exchange hopes to target a large audience and start trading cryptocurrencies on its platform.

This is a prime example of localization and global advertising that promotes cryptocurrency to a wider audience, and it will only introduce more people to the space that hopes to adopt it on a large scale in the coming decades. Some significant progress has been made in this area in 2021.

Turn that dollar into BTC

Many sports stars have begun to pave the way for people to start accepting or distributing a portion of their wages to receive or purchase cryptocurrency.

NFL players’ contributions once again made headlines Odell Beckham Jr and Aaron Rogers, Trevor Lawrence and Sakun Buckley By receiving or investing in cryptocurrency.

related: 7 NFL players choose cryptocurrency instead of cash salary

Tom Brady is here again after him Get equity In Bankman-Fried’s FTX, in addition to becoming the company’s brand ambassador, he will also receive cryptocurrency payments.

In Australia, the baseball club Perth Heat Signed agreement with Bitcoin payment processor OpenNode pays some of its players and employees in BTC. Likewise, adoption is taking place in scattered regions of the world.

Weird and wonderful

In individual cases, cryptocurrencies have clashed with the sports world. The third mention of Tom Brady (Tom Brady) is equally well-founded. In October, Brady became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 600 touchdown passes. He passed the ball to teammate Mike Evans who scored the touchdown. The Buccaneers wide receiver threw the ball into the crowd after scoring, Hand over a priceless souvenir For lucky fans.

During the game, an official managed to chat with fans, and Brady continued to offer 1 Bitcoin to lucky bystanders (Bitcoin) Give him the historic ball. 1 BTC is worth US$62,000, and the estimated value of the actual ball that completes the milestone is between US$500,000 and US$1 million.

There will be some accidents until 2021, which is not good news. Manchester City and Barcelona, ??which are well-known in their respective leagues, had to cancel transactions with smaller cryptocurrency companies for different reasons. As a reminder The field is still in its infancy, and some projects and companies may not be able to provide the products and services they hope to provide.

Spanish football legend Andrés Iniesta Spanish regulator issued a warning online Promote Binance on his Twitter and Instagram profile. The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) warned in a tweet that “there are significant risks due to unregulated products” reply A few hours later.

This is fairly harmless, but it does show that the integration of cryptocurrencies and related branches with the world of sports can sometimes be close to uncharted territory. Some things are very effective and gain traction, while others have not achieved the same success, but the adoption of trains continues.