Amidst the chaos of CeFi, it’s been a relatively quiet year for Seattle-based crowdfunding platform StormX. Although he signed a jersey patch sponsorship deal with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers last year, that deal has been closed, the team said Friday. StormX has yet to comment on the issue.
Let’s review the brief details we’ve heard over the wire over the past 24 hours about the matter and how things got to this point.
StormX: Past and Present
In July 2021, amid high-flying sports sponsorships being sold left, right and center, the Portland Trail Blazers landed their second jersey patch sponsor with the StormX staking platform. It was considered a regional play, as StormX is based a few hours north of Portland in Seattle, Washington. At the time, despite StormX’s relatively quiet public image, it was the NBA’s first crypto jersey patch.
When the deal was struck last year, it was said to be a five-year deal. However, the Trail Blazers seemed to cut it, which could be for a number of reasons. Respected Portland sports reporter Casey Holdahl first broke the news that the deal was done and that the Blazers are actively looking for a new jersey patch sponsor with kickoff less than 30 days away of the NBA season.
StormX (STMX) native token has seen a substantial decline since establishing their partnership with the Portland Trail Blazers last year. | Source: STMX-USD on TradingView.com
Speculation: What happened?
Of course, market confidence in crypto, especially around CeFi and betting platforms in general, is much lower than it was a year ago. The fall of Terra Luna, along with CeFi crypto-earnings platforms such as Voyager and Celsius, have substantially diminished consumer confidence and may have led the Trail Blazers to get cold feet on the future viability of the relationship.
However, the timing is still somewhat interesting. As a Portland freelance sports reporter Reporter Sean Highkin noted, the StormX patch was unveiled on player jerseys as recently as earlier this week for the team’s media day. There are a number of companies based in the Pacific Northwest that could serve as viable replacements for the StormX deal, but without any verified information about which brands might be interested or in talks with the club, it’s impossible to say who could fill the role of the team. next
The Blazers’ statement was brief, saying only: “As we announce the 2022-23 season, we will launch a search to identify a new jersey patch partner when we have ended our current relationship with StormX. We will share information additional information in the near future on this exciting new opportunity.”
Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.comThe author of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.
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