On 23rd June 2022, Binance—a leading cryptocurrency exchange—announced its NFT partnership with Cristiano Ronaldo. This NFT partnership that will span across the years aims at providing an intriguing entry for the football legend’s fans into the NFT world while they are introduced to Web3. Binance revealed that the first set of NFT collections would be released this year and sold only on Binance NFT.
Binance & Cristiano NFT Partnership: New Wave of Crypto and NFT Adoption
It is only natural for non-crypto individuals to be skeptical about investing in crypto or other related tools such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) after witnessing the market crash and its financial consequences on people. Some lost their entire savings to crypto volatility, leaving them to nothing than to hope for a new bull run.
A significant percentage is unaware that cryptocurrency and NFTs are two different standings in the same decentralized ecosystem. No, you can’t separate crypto from NFTs, but both don’t operate the same way. Each to its trading mechanisms. You don’t have to be a crypto trader before becoming an NFT participant. This gives crypto enthusiasts an alternative to participating in the crypto ecosystem.
But NFTs and their real-world use cases, together with the new crypto crash, are causing a series of doubts for participants. Individuals want something valuable they can invest in as NFTs. They want to avoid scam projects and ensure their capital is safe. They want to ensure that they are part of the right NFT communities. Likewise, they want an NFT that is solving a real-life problem
This has caused a drastic change in the release of NFTs into the blockchain ecosystem. Daily, founders now seek to solve world problems through NFTs. This means that utility-based NFTs are becoming the new demand in the space. An example is how they are solving media problems for artists.
Another of its type is the NFT partnership between Binance and Cristiano Ronaldo. This multi-year partnership will usher in a new wave of crypto users and NFT enthusiasts. That’s because the partnership will provide users with an undeniable offer for Ronaldo’s fans to make an entry to the Web3. As a result of this, individual interest in NFT and crypto will increase. And this will bring more NFT users on board.
The Halt in the Crypto Ecosystem
If you asked any crypto faithful around December last year, the famous saying was how they are optimistic about Bitcoin crossing the $100,000 threshold. It became the new mantra that helps the crypto community usher in new participants. As a result, there was an increased number of users while investors held onto their digital assets building skyscrapers hope for a new market boom.
No doubt, 2021 came with different favorable deals for the crypto community. The market boom happened at various intervals, from Bitcoin (BTC) hitting up to $65,000 as a price and Ethereum (ETH) moving to more than $4,500 around November. Likewise, different decentralized finance (DeFi) products spring up. This further reinforced individuals’ interest in leveraging crypto as an investment tool.
Despite the bull run in 2021, no one anticipated the crypto crash in 2022. It would be like you were expecting grey hair on a newborn head. That’s hard to find. But it came like the Great Chilean Earthquake of 1960. 2022 crypto market crash forced BTC to trade around $18,000 while ETH traded close to $900. However, the halt in the crypto ecosystem is attributed to two factors.
The first is the impacts of macroeconomic situations across the globe. One is the recent global inflation and how governments are working to buffer the situation and bring normalcy to the economy. Meanwhile, this has forced crypto investors to bank on their digital assets and caused heavy withdrawal for economic survival.
On the other hand, thanks to TerraUSD (UST) crash that lurked around since January until it crashed in May. UST dropped from a price close to $64 to $.0001961 by mid-May. This resulted from a panic sale by the investors. As a result, they believe it was a way to exit the crashing Terra ecosystem.
Likewise, speculations about Celsius and Three Arrows Capital (3AC)—one of the biggest crypto hedge fund—about insolvency exposure plunge the market slightly. This forced Celsius to withhold withdrawal, and 3AC dissolved.
Crypto vs. Sports: Perspective from Cristiano’s NFT Partnership
Crypto companies constantly seek ways to increase participation amongst the most significant percentage of their global users. The larger portion of its users are youths actively engaged in sports such as football, soccer, basketball, rugby, etc.
Crypto companies believe that bringing this name right in front of their audience through sports ads is an effective way to onboard more users and drive them to engage the crypto community. As a result, they initiated the sponsorship model that will allow crypto companies to partner with sports entities and present them to a large audience. Likewise, the sports industry and NFT companies partner to usher in a new dimension of NFTs and their utility across the sports ecosystem.
Parts of those partnerships include:
- Crypto.com & Formula 1 Partnership (2021)
- BitBoy Crypto & the Players Lounge NFT Partnership (2022)
- Bitci.com & McLaren F1 Partnership (2021)
- Binance & Cristiano NFT Partnership (2022)
- Crypto.com & UFC Partnership (2021)
- Gotham FC & Algorand NFT Partnership (2022)
- FTX & Major League Baseball Partnership (2021)
What is the Future of NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens are here to stay as much as the air remains in the universe. NFTs are an alternative dimension to enhance crypto adoption and participation. Companies, firms, groups and individuals now leverage NFTs to sort and secure some critical parts of their business operations. NFTs open new financial models for businesses and leave them open to leverage a decentralized financial tool.
This spans the sports industry and gives clubs and fans a new way to engage in sports. With blockchain technology supporting NFTs, the enhancement will happen to the fan experience, and crypto adoption will increase. Another example of such a movement ushering football fans into the Web3 is Binance and Cristiano NFT partnership which will only be released on Binance NFT.
Overall, this partnership is becoming a strategy for crypto companies to go mainstream and maximize a large fan base to obtain a significant profit share from the entire crypto target audience.
