The Golden State Warriors are reportedly putting all their FTX-related promotions on hold after the troubled cryptocurrency exchange firm filed for bankruptcy.
The news comes after the Miami Heat decided to totally cut ties with the Crypto giant following its spectacular financial collapse.
Reigning NBA champion Warriors are dropping all promotions at the Chase Center, according to ESPN.
The report claims the Jordan Poole bobblehead – created months ago – is the final advertisement with the item on offer at the arena Monday night as the team faces San Antonio Spurs.
FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings last Thursday. The crypto exchange was the world’s fourth largest and recently valued as high as $32billion.
The Golden State Warriors, who play at the Chase Center (above), are reportedly putting all their FTX-related promotions on hold after cryptocurrency exchange firm filed for bankruptcy
The Bahamas-based company said last Friday morning that it and its associated firms will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in federal court in Delaware.
Embattled FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned his role and will remain in an advisory role to assist in an ‘orderly transition’, the company said.
FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned as the company files for bankruptcy
Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old crypto wunderkind known by his initials SBF, is reportedly under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for potential securities law violations.
FTX said that John J. Ray III, the Chicago-based lawyer who oversaw the liquidation of Enron after that company’s 2001 collapse, will take over as CEO to lead the company through bankruptcy.
Warriors’ involvement with FTX includes the exchange agreeing to pay the team $10million in December 2021 in an international rights sponsorship, as CNBC reported at the time.
In the deal, FTX obtained in-arena signage at the Chase Center, brand placements with the club’s G League and NBA 2K esports team, as well as rights to the team’s NFTs.
Related Post
In March 2021, FTX also agreed to a deal with the Miami Heat for their arena’s naming rights for $135m over 19 years.
NBA franchise Miami announced they wanted to immediately terminate their business relationship with FTX last week.
The statement from the Miami Heat in part read: ‘Miami-Dade County and the Miami Heat are immediately taking action to terminate our business relationships with FTX, and we will be working together to find a new naming rights partner for the arena.’
The collapse of FTX follows days of whiplash developments, starting with a crisis of confidence after Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, the CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, ordered a sell-off of FTX’s in-house token.
Panicked FTX customers attempted to withdraw $6bn of funds in 72 hours, and the company was unable to cover its obligations to depositors due to a ‘liquidity crunch’.
FTX may have been using customer deposits to fund risky bets by its affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research, according to the Wall Street Journal — a legally dubious move that would be sure to draw regulatory scrutiny.
After FTX was forced to freeze customer withdrawals, Binance stepped in with an offer to bail out the firm — but backed out of the deal after reportedly finding a massive $8bn hole in the company’s books.
Bankman-Fried scrambled to find other financial backers to rescue FTX, but as reports mounted about federal probes into his handling of customer funds, he found no takers.
FTX branding will be removed from Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s Mercedes
FTX, the troubled cryptocurrency exchange, filed for bankruptcy after a stunning financial implosion exposed concerns about its handling of customer funds and rocked broader crypto markets
Bankman-Fried, once seen as the ‘poster boy’ of crypto, had an estimated net worth of $15.2bn last Monday, but by the end of the week, his fortune was all but wiped out.
Despite the potentially immense legal jeopardy he faces, Bankman-Fried remained active on Twitter, writing Friday morning: ‘I’m really sorry, again, that we ended up here.’
‘Hopefully things can find a way to recover. Hopefully this can bring some amount of transparency, trust, and governance to them. Ultimately hopefully it can be better for customers,’ he added.
‘I’m piecing together all of the details, but I was shocked to see things unravel the way they did earlier this week,’ he wrote, vowing to compose a longer statement detailing the ‘play by play’ of his company’s collapse.
Mercedes suspended their partnership with FTX and announced they would remove their logo from cars while the troubled firm has partnerships with a range of star athletes including Tom Brady, Warriors’ Steph Curry and Naomi Osaka.
Brady, Curry and Osaka are among the athletes who have lost money in the recent crash of FTX. Curry inked a partnership with FTX in September 2021 – his first in the crypto space – and shared his excitement over the deal in a press release at the time.
Osaka, meanwhile, took an equity stake in FTX in March, which was described as a ‘long-term’ contract that would pay her in cryptocurrency.
NFL star Brady and ex-wife Gisele Bundchen were also among the celebrities caught up in the crypto crash.
But neither Brady or Bundchen are expected to see losses to the magnitude of Bankman-Fried, the company’s recent developments could certainly leave a dent.
The ex-couple took an equity stake in the company last year, with Brady announced as a brand ambassador and Bundchen an environmental and social initiatives adviser.
Brady and Bundchen even appeared in commercials for the company in 2021.
Tom Brady appeared in commercials for FTX, including one with a flamethrower
