A crypto-heavy NBA season comes to an end

Boston Celtics in Game 6 on Thursday to win their fourth NBA championship in eight seasons, it should also have been a win for the crypto industry.

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The Warriors were said to have previously inked a sponsorship deal with FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, reportedly worth $10 million.

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Curry himself earlier this year appeared in a commercial for FTX, in which he repeatedly notes he is not an expert on crypto.

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And the industry featured in the commercials during the finals, including an advertisement from Coinbase,

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another exchange, mocking crypto doubters by showing different tweets over the years claiming "Crypto is dead," followed by the words, "Long live crypto."

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But as an NBA season and post-season awash in cryptocurrency sponsorships came to a close this week, the crypto industry was confronting new challenges.

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The price of many cryptocurrencies has plummeted, with Bitcoin falling to just above $20,000 this week, down from an all-time high of nearly $69,000 in November.

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Meanwhile, a wave of layoffs has spread throughout the sector to brace for a possible prolonged economic downturn. Now, the optics of those deals may have changed.

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Any sports fan this year has been bombarded with crypto, including advertisements, arena name changes, logos on jerseys and NFT offerings.

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But even by that standard, the NBA has stood out. In just the last year, crypto jumped to the second highest spending sector in NBA sponsorships, up from 43rd, according to IEG, a sports partnerships consultancy.

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Cryptocurrency brands spent more than $130 million on NBA sponsorship this season, up from less than $2 million last season, according to the firm.

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Just five crypto companies, including Crypto.com, Coinbase and FTX, were responsible for 92% of the sector spending that helped the NBA reach $1.6 billion in annual sponsorship fees this season, according to IEG

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The NBA is involved in the NFT market with NBA Top Shot, a League-focused NFT marketplace that allows fans to buy, sell and trade basketball highlights, or "Moments."

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Top Shot, launched by Dapper Labs, was released to the public in October 2020 and has big name investors in the game, including Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant.

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