- The 2025 Formula 1 season commenced last week with many teams featuring cryptocurrency sponsors.
- Tokens such as Binance Coin, OKX, ApeCoin, Crypto.com, and Alchemy Pay experienced notable rallies as their sponsors left an impact on the racing scene.
- BNB, OKX, APE, CRO, and ACH tokens surged between 1.5% and 5% on Monday.
The 2025 Formula 1 season started in Australia last week, showcasing a lineup of cryptocurrency sponsors for half of the racing teams. The sport is now supported by major sponsors including crypto exchanges Binance, OKX, ApeCoin, and Crypto.com, along with various NFT and trading platforms.
Crypto.com (CRO) serves as a global partner for the Formula One Group through to the end of 2030, while Red Bull Racing has backing from Gate.io, and Aston Martin has a sponsorship deal with one of the premier centralized crypto exchanges, Coinbase.
McLaren is partnered with OKX, while Binance and ApeCoin sponsor Alpine. Notably, Ferrari does not have any crypto sponsorship this season, and McLaren is still recovering from its previous ties to the failed crypto exchange FTX.
Crypto tokens influenced by the launch of the 2025 Formula 1 season
Binance’s own token, Binance Coin (BNB), along with OKX’s (OKB), ApeCoin (APE), Alchemy Pay (ACH), and Crypto.com (CRO) saw increases on Monday. These tokens rose between 1.5% and 5% during the day as market participants reflected on the weekend’s races.
While motorsport fans keep an eye on the season’s progress, crypto traders are reaping rewards from the uptick in token prices following last week’s correction in the market led by Bitcoin.
Binance recently surpassed 250 million registered users, as noted in a January 2025 report. With its involvement this racing season, the exchange aims to further boost user sign-ups and engagement on its platform.
BNB is utilized for fee payments and various other functions within the trading environment, strengthening the case for a potential increase in its demand.
The increase of crypto sponsorships in sports
With Michael Saylor advocating for Bitcoin and the United States leaning towards pro-crypto regulation and policies, the trend of crypto sponsorships in sports such as Football, Mixed Martial Arts, and Snooker is gaining momentum.
Despite the absence of crypto sponsorships at Super Bowl LIX 2025—one of the premier sporting events in the United States—recent announcements reveal a significant number of partnerships forming between crypto companies and sports entities.
Marketing agency SportQuake reported 22 sponsorship deals made thus far in 2025, averaging $4.3 million each, compared to 18 deals averaging $2.6 million during the same period last year.
Notable partnerships include Tether’s acquisition of a minority stake in Juventus, an Italian football club, valued at almost $50 million. Additionally, crypto exchange XBO.com has recently become the official global sponsor of Argentina’s national football team.
Other significant developments this year include Sportsbet.io’s title sponsorship of the Snooker Players Championship and Cloudbet’s multi-year deal with the Professional Fighters League in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).