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Portland Trail Blazers to Wear NBA's First Crypto Ad Patch (Sorry, PayPal)
The StormX deal is just the latest example of crypto companies going all-in on sports sponsorships.
Updated May 9, 2023, 3:21 a.m. Published Jul 1, 2021, 4:00 p.m.
The Portland Trail Blazers will sport StormX advertising patches on their jerseys thanks to a sponsorship deal between the crypto cashback provider and Oregon's National Basketball Association team.
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- The partnership is both StormX's first with a sports organization and the Trail Blazers' first with a crypto company, according to an emailed announcement Thursday.
- Notwithstanding PayPal, which is the current patch partner of the Phoenix Suns, StormX will be the first pure crypto firm to have its brand displayed on NBA jerseys.
- StormX provides an app and Google Chrome extension that earns consumers cash back in crypto on purchases from selected retailers, including Uber, eBay and Microsoft. It also has its own token, STMX.
- The partnership extends the ongoing crossover between NBA and crypto, following the success of non-fungible token platform NBA Top Shot and FTX's sponsorship of the Miami Heat's home arena.
- StormX CEO Simon Yu, a longtime Blazers fan, sees NBA exposure as a means of driving mainstream adoption.
- "The world will start to understand that there's more to crypto and blockchain products outside of trading," he told CoinDesk.
Read more: FTX Strikes Sponsorship Deal With MLB, Umpires to Wear Crypto Exchange’s Logo
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