FTX had talks with Taylor Swift over a 100 million dollar sponsoring deal

SAM Bankman-Frieds FTX reached the late stages of negotiating a sponsorship contract worth more than $ 100 million with Taylor Swift, but the talks with the pop star fought only a few months before the collapse of the stock exchange in November.

The discussions included a ticketing agreement with digital certificates, which are known as non-funny tokens of the record-breaking singer-songwriter "Anti Hero", according to the persons familiar with the matter.

The talks of FTX with Swift and the negotiated nine -digit sum underline the ambition and the reach of the stringing of the crypta group according to partnerships with celebrities before it went bankrupt last month. FTX had concluded contracts with US soccer star Tom Brady and Supermodel Gisele Bündchen as well as tennis star Naomi Osaka and the basketball players Shaquille O’Neal and Steph Curry.

People with knowledge of the talks said that the process also highlighted the unorthodox internal decision-making of FTX and the clashes between Bankman-Fried's inner circle and more experienced managers who were consulted from the outside.

Bankman-Fried and a representative of Taylor Swift refused to comment.

The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried was initially for the deal, also because he is "a fan of Tay Tay", said an employee using Swift's nickname. Claire Watanabe, a manager in the FTX business development team, was viewed by former employees as a driving force behind the strut to Swift and was also a fan of her music. Watanabe could not be achieved for a statement.

Those who urged to stop the conversations that started and ended this spring said that the partnership with Swift said to be too expensive and questioned whether earlier celebrity deals offered a good price-performance ratio.

The deal was rejected by several members of the marketing team. "Nobody really liked the deal. It was too expensive from the start," said a person trusted with the negotiations and added that the price was "very high.

Bankman-Fried was asked by high-ranking managers to hire the talks, including FTX US President Brett Harrison, who had more than a decade experience with financial company such as Jane Street and Citadel before he came to FTX, and US general Counsel Ryne Miller, a former Sullivan & Cromwell partner, sounded with the matter.

skeptics also asked whether the singer, who would reach the second most common streaming artist on Spotify this year, who would reach the demographic target group for prospective cryptocurrency dealers. A former employee said that some in the company felt "so [Swift] would not bring any added value to our user base".

Another former employee said FTX asked Swift on social media for a “easy degree of support”. A person who was close to the discussions said Swift never thought of agreeing to the exchange.

"Taylor did not want and did not agree to an endorsement deal. The discussion was about a possible tour sponsoring that did not take place," said the person.

The promotion of FTX for awareness was fueled by extravagant editions for sports marketing deals and celebrity notes. The company spent $ 135 million to secure the name rights for Miami's basketball stadium, and last autumn $ 20 million for an advertising campaign with Brady and Bündchen. Several crypto exchanges have spent a lot of money on marketing and sports shops to attract new DIY crypto investors.

the failure of the negotiations meant that Swift has given way to the connection with FTX, the last month in Delaware reported bankruptcy in accordance with Chapter 11 because it owed money from up to 1 million creditors and revealed a lack of customer assets of one billion dollar. Bankman-Fried makes serious management errors responsible for the collapse, but is suspended to have misused customer money, which he denies.

The company, which was occupied by stars, also attracted criticism because it exaggeratedly sold cryptocurrency investments to first investors. The millions of ftx television commercial at the US superbowl caught fire because it tried to fuel fears of choosing something.

"The consumers were flooded with crypto advertising, everyone who has seen the Superbowl knows what I mean who aims to arouse feelings of urgency and to fuel the fear of choosing something," said US Senator Amy Klobuchar in hearings about FTX last week.

The ad with the comedian and actor Larry David described FTX as "a safe and simple way to get in crypto". David, who represented a technology skeptic in the advertisement. "I don't think so. And I'm never wrong with this stuff," he said.