Cryptocurrencies received another huge mainstream push this week as the Crypto.com Staples Center takeover was finalized. We’re going to take a quick look at why this is an important event in cryptocurrency history.
What is the Crypto.com Staples Takeover?
Crypto.com didn’t just secure any old stadium’s naming rights. They secured the rights to the Staples Center which is almost universally recognized by professional basketball fans. While the NBA’s popularity has taken a nosedive over the last few seasons, there are still millions of viewers who will tune in to watch two teams, the Lakers and the Clippers, on their home court. The arena also serves as the Los Angeles Kings home and the Los Angeles Sparks, which, I guess counts for something. The bottom line, the arena receives significant attention through sports media. Crypto.com paid handsomely for the privilege, the 20-year deal will set them back $700 million.
Here’s the story from the Los Angeles Times:
Staples Center is getting a new name for Christmas: Crypto.com Arena.
The downtown Los Angeles venue — home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks — will wear the new name for 20 years under a deal between the Singapore cryptocurrency exchange and AEG, the owner and operator of the arena, both parties announced Tuesday. Crypto.com paid more than $700 million for the naming rights, according to sources familiar with the terms, making it one of the biggest naming deals in sports history…
Crypto.com’s chief executive, Kris Marszalek, hopes that the new name will come to be seen as a sign of the times.
“In the next few years, people will look back at this moment as the moment when crypto crossed the chasm into the mainstream,” Marszalek said when reached at his home in Hong Kong.
“This is just such a brilliant move from the guys at AEG, because the next decade belongs to crypto,” he said. “And this positions L.A. and this particular venue right at the center of it.”
Will Changing the Name of a Venue to Crypto.com Really Have an Impact?
Corporations paying for stadium naming rights have been a part of the sports landscape for decades. For many sports fans, it’s a damn nuisance. In most instances, calling a stadium by the name of some random company that has nothing to do with sports seems inorganic and forced. In Miami, a sporting venue that started out as “Joe Robbie Stadium” changed its name seven times over two decades! However, seemingly against all odds, some fans become intensely attached to said corporate name!
The Staples Center name has become synonymous with sports in Los Angeles over the last twenty years. It also hosts a ton of concerts and live events, which means constant advertising. Plus, “Crypto.com Arena” can morph into a nickname like “The Crypt” pretty easily.
How Will This Move Affect Crypto?
The constant exposure of the Crypto.com name alone establishes legitimacy, not only to the brand, but the overall crypto market and the very concept of cryptocurrencies as a store of wealth. As an added bonus, their corporate name is completely synonymous with, well, crypto! This isn’t going to be “CoinBase Park” or “KuCoin Stadium.” In other words, this won’t present a situation where people might not know what a KuCoin actually is, or one where they confuse CoinBase with the company that owns those machines that take your change at supermarkets. With a simple name like “Crypto.com,” there is near zero implied confusion! The entire cryptosphere should be thrilled that Crypto.com has acquired the naming rights ahead of any other cryptocurrency related company. The entire industry will receive attention due to it’s synonymity (Is that even a word? Well, it is now) with the Crypto.com brand name.
Crypto.com Staples Center Takeover Moves Crypto Into the Mainstream
So where does this put us in the overall crypto trend? The quote: “In the next few years, people will look back at this moment as the moment when crypto crossed the chasm into the mainstream,” might sound like hyperbole. But we think that statement will prove to be prescient. The best analogy I can think of is that, in 1995, you started to see some of the first commercials for America Online (AOL). Five years later, the internet had become completely mainstreamed and accepted as an emerging part of American life. Sports fans couldn’t leave the room to take a piss during a commercial break in the 2000 SuperBowl without missing one of the fourteen Dot-Com ads.
Now, we personally believe that the crypto trend is well past where we were with the internet in 1995. In terms of progress toward legitimizing crypto for the masses, the Crypto.com Staples Center takeover is a far more powerful announcement than those early AOL commercials. Where does this leave us in the overall crytpo trend? Well, if we imagine it alongside of the trend of the internet adoption, we’re probably somewhere in the later half of the 1990’s. Why? Back in 1995, only 14% of Americans used the internet.
Currently, around 16% of Americans are invested in cryptocurrencies. In our free eBook 9 Unusual Ways You Can Make Money With Crypto (But Can’t With Cash) we noted that only 4% of the world’s population are invested in cryptocurrencies. Those learning about and investing in crypto today may not be coming in at the “ground floor” but we’re all early enough to say that we got in at the lobby!
Crypto.com came out swinging for the fences and their $700 million investment should pay enormous dividends for decades, not just for their brand, but for the entire cryptocurrency industry. This could very well be seen as the moment when crypto crossed the Rubicon.
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