Cryptocurrency Invades Sport Marketplace With Latest NASCAR Deal

The emerging trend of cryptocurrency storming into the sports industry has been bolstered by NASCAR driver, Landon Cassill, signing a new partnership deal with cryptocurrency trading platform, Voyager Digital.

The deal is historic for the American race series as it makes Cassill the first driver to be paid fully in cryptocurrency.

Voyager will feature as a paint scheme on the JD Motorsports’ No.4 Chevrolet in the Tennessee Lottery 250.

Cassill is an avid user of Voyager and cryptocurrency, saying he checks his Voyager account “probably 100 times a day”, but he also admitted there’s a risk involved with it.

“There is risk in holding cryptocurrency as there is with any stock or any investment,” Cassill said.

“But for me, it’s something I’m familiar with, I’m comfortable with and I feel like I have a good handle on what I’m willing to risk,” he said.

The deal is more proof cryptocurrency is not a fad and could be the new normal within the economy in the future, especially within sports.

Recently, the San Jose Sharks became the first National Hockey League (NHL) team to accept cryptocurrency as payment from fans, working with BitPay to accept the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin.

As well, US esports organisation, Team SoloMid (TSM), inked a record-breaking deal with cryptocurrency trading platform, FTX, in a 10-year deal worth USD$210 million (AUD$271 million) following FTX purchasing the stadium name rights for the Miami Heat’s home stadium.

A new study by fund manager, Vanguard Australia, surveyed over 1,000 investors finding one in five millennials own cryptocurrency with half of them making their first investment in 2020.

So what is the actual risk for athletes investing in cryptocurrency?

With the market constantly moving up and down it can be hard to understand the market trends.

Let’s look at top cryptocurrency, Ethereum, which has seen a 547.20% increase in value over the past year with a 32.31% increase over six months.

However, the past month has seen a 12.8% decrease in value as well as a 5.78% decrease in the past week alone.

Like the stock market, cryptocurrency is all about trends and finding opportunities within the market.

Now with the sports industry welcoming cryptocurrency and NFTs all across the board, it’s quite an exciting time to see athletes getting involved within the marketplace.