Ferrari Ends Partnership With Crypto Sponsor

Velas Blockchain, a partner of the elite racing team since 2021, can no longer be found on the official Scuderia Ferrari team’s sponsor list. The cancellation of this sponsorship deal (as well as with Snapdragon, a chip manufacturer giant) bears an expensive cost for the Italian racing squad which will result in a $55 million loss.

Velas presents itself as ‘currently the fastest blockchain with Ethereum VM compatibility’. The partnership was supposed to generate $30 million a year by providing fans incentives to engage in Web3 ventures, such as by acquiring exclusive non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and similar.

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Such news from an elite F1 team makes it clear that there’s a tendency in the Formula 1 industry for teams to distance themselves from crypto-related business initiatives and connections.

Other teams that have made similar decisions are AlphaTauri F1 team which ended their Fantom and ICM.com partnerships. The Mercedes Benz F1 team is also on this list, since they’ve terminated their contract with now-collapsed crypto exchange FTX. 

Nevertheless, this trend is not a one-way street. Other teams, such as McLaren Racing used crypto-inspired designs during 2022 Singapore Grand Prix and 2022 Japanese Grand Prix races.