Bybit to Issue F1 Oracle Red Bull Racing Fan Tokens in 5-Year Deal

It’s been a busy start to the year for crypto exchanges, which have continued to look towards the sport to grow market awareness.

Superbowl LVI proved to be a huge success for crypto exchanges that bought advertising airtime. We have also seen a sharp increase in sponsorship activity, however, as exchanges set out goals to build brand awareness.

Superbowl LVI Highlights the Influence of Sport

In the last week, the crypto news wires were flooded with news of the success of crypto advertising at this year’s event. Major exchanges that bought airtime at Superbowl LVI included Coinbase, Crypto.com, eToro, and FTX.

It was Coinbase and Crypto.com, however, that reportedly shared the limelight. In response to a 1-minute ad, Coinbase’s app jumped from 186^th to 2^nd on Apple’s App Store. This year, Super Bowl ads cost about $7m for every 30 seconds according to reports.

Exchanges and Fan Tokens Prove Popular in Sport

While advertising was immensely successful at Super Bowl LVI, crypto exchanges have also chosen sponsorship as an alternative avenue to build brand awareness.

In late January, the Argentina Football Association presented Binance as the main sponsor of the men’s national soccer team. In a 5-year deal, the agreement included the development of a new Fan Token. For Binance, it wasn’t the first relationship with men’s soccer.

In 2021, Binance had signed a sponsorship deal with the Italian football team Lazio. Binance issued fan tokens in recognition of the Lazio relationship. In a fast-growing trend, fan tokens also exist for Italian football teams AS Roma and Juventus and Spain’s Atletico de Madrid.

Following the success of other exchanges and football fan tokens proving popular, it was just a matter of time before other sports followed suit.

Digital Assets and Formula 1 Is A Growing Relationship

On Wednesday, Oracle Red bull Racing announced Bybit joining “the charge as Principal Team Partner in the largest per annum cryptocurrency sports agreement to date”. The partnership aims “to boost fan engagement with scope for digital asset creation and social tokens in future”. Bybit will reportedly work with the Oracle Red bull Racing team in two expanded roles:

• Exclusive crypto exchange partner that includes being the Fan Token Issuance Partner.
• Tech incubator partner, collaborating on crypto-driven initiatives from crypto-literacy to the promotion of growth in green technologies.

On Wednesday, Red Bull Racing also reportedly signed a new 5-year sponsorship deal with Oracle worth around $300m. As a result, the team changed its name to Oracle Red Bull Racing.

Red Bull Racing took the Driver’s Championship in 2021. Max Verstappen nipped Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to 1^st place in the final race of the season.