Rise of crypto.com: From the university blog to the home of La Lakers

crypto.com began as a blog of a professor of the University of Pennsylvania, Matt Blaze, who sold the name in 2018 for an unknown sum of a little-known start-up, which dealt with cryptocurrency and credit cards called Monaco.

Monaco, now a cryptocurrency exchange with its headquarters in Singapore, which was renamed Crypto.com, has just agreed to pay $ 700 million to emerge the title of this blog for 20 years in the Los Angeles Arena, which is synonymous with the basketball championships of the Lakers and a concert for artists from Taylor Swift to Paul McCartney.

The huge amount of money thrown into the Staples Center shows how the comet-like rise of Bitcoin changes the corporate landscape and how freshly minted crypto giants are willing to pay to win new retail customers.

Sport-sponsoring is a proven way for companies to make a name for themselves by exchanging the loyalty of the fans.

In June, the Bahamas based on the FTX stock exchange right at the Miami Heat stadium and was the official cryptocurrency platform of the Major League Baseball and the seven-time Super Bowl Champion Quarterback in the same month.

AEG, the company that has and operates the Staples Center, hopes that crypto rebranding will work in both directions. Todd Goldstein, Chief Revenue Officer from AEG, said that Crypto.com was praised as a name partner because they hoped to attract "part of their demography" - namely younger, more technically savvy consumers.

"If the shock only subsides a bit, there are people who understand how it can be good for the arena and good for the partner," said Goldstein of the Financial Times.

The step to transform the Staples Center into the Crypto.com arena from Christmas will also examine the little-known company in more detail and ask whether it is able to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars that are needed.

Kris Marszalek, CEO and majority shareholder, said it was a "direct cash deal".

Even if there is a lack of brand awareness, according to Marszalek, the five -year -old private company has 3,000 employees all over the world and generated hundreds of million in sales in the second quarter of this year.

"In the second quarter we generated about a quarter of the sales of Coinbase and have been profitable since the beginning of the year," said the FT Crypto.com boss. "The crypto area is extremely hot and we have recorded 20 times the growth of sales this year."

COINBASE - The only listed cryptocurrency exchange at the beginning of this year with an assessment of 76 billion

The increasing Bitcoin price has transformed a handful of companies like Coinbase into billion dollar companies that surf the influx of new investors and the high margins they can request.

The FTX rival exchange recently reached an assessment of 25 billion Gemini, the crypto company of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, has recently completed a financing round that brought a price of $ 7.1 billion to the stock exchange.

In contrast to traditional markets, in which the margins were compressed to a wafer -thin level, Crypto.com and its competitors can calculate 0.4 percent for transactions that take place at the venue, and even more if the trade takes place via the company's mobile app.

Crypto.com converts cryptocurrency transactions worth several billion US dollars daily and has been handling more than $ 415 billion of trades on its stock exchange since March last year, according to the data of the analysis company CryptoCommare specializing in digital assets.

This corresponds to sales of $ 1.2 billion with an average fee of 0.3 percent, but the number contains no trades about the app in which stock exchanges can demand two or three times as much as on their main exchanges. No volumes are announced for such transactions, which is too low, according to the company, according to the company.

cryptocurrency exchanges usually calculate investors less the more they act. This gives single dealers an incentive to take their bets on Bitcoin and other greater risks, because apart from the fact that they are paying more and more money on their accounts, they could be tried to bloze out their trades by using leverage. The stock exchanges can also earn money through their own digital currencies and through credit transactions.

crypto.com has a rapidly growing portfolio of sports facilities, including Paris Saint-Germain and Italian series A in football, Formula 1 race, UFC-Profiktkmfe and basketball Philadelphia 76ers, all of which were signed for advertising purposes this year.

it also "considered" to procure funds in a market in which the conditions were extremely cheap, said Marszalek. Venture capital investors agree. Greg Carson, managing partner of XBTO Humla Ventures, said that companies focused on digital assets due to their "explosive" growth and the high margins they could ask for a premium.

crypto skeptics refer to the deal for renaming the stadium as a sign that we are near the market tip, a suggestion that is mocked by many in the industry.

But even if crypto is at the center of disagreement itself, there was no one to give the preferred nickname for the arena. "You will call it the crypt," said sports commentator Dan Patrick. "Not crypto.com or whatever."