Crypto Exchange FTX Wants to Buy Naming Rights for NBA Miami Heat’s Stadium

Hong-Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX is reportedly making a new move in the NBA Arena. The cryptocurrency exchange is currently leading active negotiations with Florida’s Miami-Dade County authorities for a sponsorship deal that allows them to rename the Miami Heat’s stadium to FTX Arena.

Local news publication Miami Herald was the first to publish the details about the deal citing some unnamed sources. Currently, Miami-Dade County operates and owns the stadium. Since 1999, the popular basketball stadium carries the name of its sponsor American Airlines.

As said, if FTX manages to crack the deal in its sponsorship talks, it would further rename the stadium as FTX Arena. If successful, it will grant the FTX exchange exclusive rights to rename the 19,600-seat arena.

However, FTX has refrained to comment on anything further on this development. But it turns out that the domain name ftxarena.com has been already registered by an unidentified party. This could potentially mean that FTX has already done a few preparations at the backend. Or it could also mean that someone else cited the opportunity with the news and made the first move. The report reads:

“Miami-Dade County is getting closer to signing a cryptocurrency company to replace American Airlines as the naming-rights sponsor of the Miami Heat’s downtown arena, according to several sources – a deal that would deliver the NBA its first venue tied to bitcoin and other electronic currencies”.

FTX Interest in NBA: Crypto’s Intersection with the Popular Sports Culture

Off lately, cryptocurrency firms and businesses have been warming up to the popular culture in sports, music, and other areas. This move seems to be a part of leveraging the power of crypto while popularizing them at the same time.

As reported by CoinTelegraph, the move by FTX to acquire the stadium’s naming rights could be the outcome of Blockfolio co-founder Edward Moncada. In his profile, Moncada made a note of how his interest in crypto intersects with popular culture.

One of the most popular and interesting developments in recent times has been the craze around NFTs. Blockchain-based Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have revolutionized the way to digitize unique artworks and scarce assets. Last week, Beeple’s digital artwork NFT was sold for a massive $69 million. the NFT market is already turning into a multi-million-dollar industry.