Top Crypto Partnerships 2022: From Christiano Ronaldo to Disney Accelerator Program Partnerships

The year 2022 has been a year to remember; especially for the crypto world. To say the least, it has been eventful for the traditional and crypto market. Even during the ongoing crypto winter, many organizations and influencers with a global presence stood for Virtual Digital Assets also called as VDAs. Right from making the most of global events like FIFA, many big institutions have been joining hands with partners to stay relevant in the world that is transitioning to Web3.

To simplify, the primary reason brands, influencers and Web3 founders partner with each other is to optimize the reach drivers and maintain their presence far and wide. In addition, brands and celebrities look at these partnerships as the best means to gain popularity by either offering a stake or a fixed sum of investment. Some crypto projects also sign up for a quid pro quo partnership.

Some of the Top Crypto Partnerships are as mentioned below:

Top Crypto Partnerships in 2022 

Company	Partnership with	Use Case	Category
Binance	Khaby Lame	Social media-driven marketing to understand Web3 and crypto.	Crypto Exchange
Bentley	Polygon	Luxury Brand Marketing through creating Non-Fungible tokens	Blockchain
Polygon	Disney Accelerator	The partnership involves anchoring technology development for effective adoption.	Blockchain
Monaco Grand Pix	Bybit	Brand Marketing through creating Non-Fungible tokens for Millenial Gen.	Crypto Exchange
Coinbase	MasterCard	The partnership was to drive NFT trade with credit cards and debit cards as an added payment method.	Crypto Payments
FIFA	Algorand	The partnership is formulated to help FIFA build its digital asset strategy and to adopt blockchain as an administrative system.	Blockchain, Crypto.
Nothing Mobile	Polygon	The partnership is charted to bring web3 platforms onto a web3 native smartphone	Adoption
Wanchain	Cardano	This partnership is formed to design multi-chain platforms using Wanchain to work as a sidechain to make blockchains interoperable.	Blockchain
Aave	Pocket Network	This partnership aimed to accrue blockchain data for understanding user behavior.	Blockchain, Data analytics.
Binance	Christiano Ronaldo	Brand Marketing through creating Non-Fungible tokens for Ronaldo fans.	Virtual Digital Assets

Also Read: Top 10 Celebrities Who Entered the NFT World

Apart from the renowned partnerships with celebrities, there has been a lot of NFT-influenced branding that took place this year, some of the notable ones are as mentioned below:

• Swyftx’s three-year Sponsorship Deal with the Australian National Rugby League: As an effort towards their branding, the Brisbane based crypto exchange looped in sponsorship deals with not only the National Rugby League but also the Women’s National Rugby League, State of Origin, and All-Star games. Back in February, when the deal was made, Swyftx CEO Ryan Parsons commented, “The partnerships we’re seeing at the moment represent a sign of growing confidence in the future of crypto and its potential for universal adoption. The real question now isn’t whether crypto is here to stay, but how quickly it reshapes the future of the global economy and traditional financial services.“

 

• Red Bull’s NFT Deal with Bybit: The dominance of NFTs when it comes to crypto collaboration has been going strong for a while, one of the latest being NFTs making its mark on Red Bull Racing’s vehicles to close out the 2022 F1 calendar. Bybit’s logo was featured alongside Lei the Lightning Azuki; which is an NFT artwork and a character from the anime-inspired Azuki collection.<
  

  🤯 Something big is on its way …

  💫 Find out more about this next level partnership with @redbullracing!

  🎥 Catch the full film — out now on the Bybit Race Insider Page: https://t.co/wKhQa6uIqQ #TheSearchForTheNextLevel pic.twitter.com/l5aWurtkbL

  — Bybit (@Bybit_Official) May 24, 2022

  /li>

• Microsoft and Meta: Exploring the various options that Metaverse has been bringing on the table for the crypto space, the handshake between Meta and Microsoft seemed a very logical step. This partnership is sought to include a range of Microsoft Office 365 products within Meta’s virtual reality (VR) platform. The aim for this is to lure companies into working in virtual environment settings.

 

• DigitalBits and David Beckham: Back in March 2022, the former iconic English Premier League footballer David Beckham was appointed as the global brand ambassador for DigitalBits blockchain. Through this partnership, he also launched his own range of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in the process.<
  

  Excited to announce #DavidBeckham has become a Global Ambassador for #DigitalBits!

  Get ready to explore the world of #Blockchain, #NFTs and #Metaverse with Beckham.

  More details 👉https://t.co/yafO7W2OuL

  Thread 👇 pic.twitter.com/n54BMeDsnE

  — DigitalBits (XDB) (@DigitalBitsOrg) March 24, 2022

  /li>

• Mastercard Debit cards and Bored Apes: Earlier this year, in September, Mastercard announced that their debit cards will now feature Bored Apes NFTs. This customizable card will be supporting NFT avatars from certain selected blue chip collections. However, they will be subject to Mastercard’s design standards apart from a verification process of the owner.<
  

  NEWS! Today @hi_com_official launches the world’s first debit card featuring NFT Customization, allowing cardholders to personalize the face of their card with an NFT Avatar. Read more here 👇https://t.co/awNVowcsuG pic.twitter.com/A5xFsHlX0w

  — Mastercard Europe (@MastercardEU) September 26, 2022

  /li>

What are Crypto Partnerships and Why are they important?

Formulating partnerships with reputed names is the oldest and most effective business development strategy. Crypto partnerships help brands reach a wider audience without having to spend too much time on acquiring leads to convert into customers. Partnerships of crypto institutions with brands and vice versa help them position themselves as a creative and credible name. These partnerships help in widening the audience and also work as a great channel to gain the attention of the influencers as well as customers. 

Best Crypto Partnerships: What factors determine the partnership to be a successful one?

• The Crypto Partnership must solve or offer users better services or benefits.
• A partnership could be an entry point to spread awareness around a certain subject or product offering. 
• Effective communication of the partnership and what individuals can expect

Different Types of Crypto Partnerships

There are three types of partnerships in crypto and web3

1. Paid partnerships: In this type of partnership, an institution or influencer is paid to promote their brand through storytelling and marketing in different spaces. These influencers have a huge following in their own respective domain. Usually, a partnership like this could continue for a month to 6 months depending upon the market and community response. Best crypto partnerships driven by a vision and targets help web3 and crypto firms to optimize their marketing and promotional activity from time to time. Binance’s collaboration with Khaby Lame falls under top crypto partnerships in 2022.
2. Pro Bono: This kind of partnership is formulated to help a certain group of individuals upskill in their careers or learn something that is trending in the industry. Pro Bonos are generally small-sized partnerships but offers great opportunity to market businesses or skills. For example, a Singaporean start-up Lumos Labs partners with other educational platforms to help them scale their web3 products. It is a win-win for both parties. The best crypto partnerships are the ones that offer fundamental value rather than monetary. 
3. Venture-backed crypto partnerships: In a crypto partnership that is backed by a crypto foundation or non for profit organization, deserving start-ups or projects are funded to scale their products. For example, Algorand offers an accelerator program for their eco-system partners to utilize funding and scale their offerings, develop teams, hire people and design and test dApps. The latest Polygon – Disney accelerator program is the best example to understand venture-backed partnerships. In the Disney accelerator program, the team of Polygon will receive mentoring and product insights from user behavioral studies and surveys. 

Virtual Digital Assets (VDA) Partnerships 2022: 

1. Binance roped in Khaby Lame the popular Tik Tok artist to educate the community about Web3. Khaby will explain web3 as a subject through his signature style. “I’ve been curious about Web3.0 for some time, and jumped at the chance to partner with a leader like Binance because it aligns perfectly with what I usually do: make complex stuff easy and fun for everyone,” Lame said in a statement.
2. Bentley partnered with Polygon blockchain to launch their NFT collection on 0x chain. The automaker’s foray into web3 testifies the impact of the industry. The automaker will release their NFTs in September 2022 featuring  Bentley’s fastest Grand Tourer – the Continental GT Speed. 208 and the 1952 R-Type Continental. 
3. Disney chose Polygon technology for its accelerator program earlier this month. The accelerator program will develop new technologies within augmented reality (AR), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and artificial intelligence (AI). During the course of the program, the selected team will receive guidance from Disney’s senior leadership team and a dedicated executive mentor.
4. F1 Grand Pix partnered with Bybit –  a crypto exchange platform to channel the promotion of F1 NFTs. The F1 car-making firm is foraying into web3 through crypto and NFT to get the attention of the millennials. 
5. Coinbase partnered with Master Card – a global payments service to make the NFT purchase experience easy for collectors. This partnership will enable Mastercard credit and debit card holders to purchase NFTs directly from the platforms. 
6. FIFA chose Algorand to be its official sponsored blockchain and technical partner. This partnership can be deemed as quid pro quo as FIFA will assist in marketing and promoting the blockchain firm while Algorand will offer digital assets strategy. 
7. Polygon entered into a partnership with a new brand Nothing mobile designed for web3 applications. The launch of services on the phone is on the anvil and the first batch of these phones will be ready to ship soon. In the first stage, the mobile holders will get the black dot NFT of Nothing which will offer access to exclusive events and more in the crypto and web3 space. 
8. Wanchain partnered with Cardano to help scale the blockchain by developing sidechains to make the Cardano mainnet and other blockchains interoperable. Through this advancement, EVM also called as Ethereum Virtual Machine will make Cardano compatible with Ethereum. The collaboration of Cardano and Wanchain is one of the top crypto partnerships of 2022. 
9. Aave – one of the leading lending platforms entered into a partnership with Pocket Network to obtain on-chain data. According to sources, the partnership will be instrumental in powering other decentralized applications across various blockchains. 
10.  Cristiano Ronaldo signed a partnership with Binance to roll out sports NFTs. Through this partnership, Binance aims to level up to the legendary footballer’s fandom. Through this partnership, the exchange plans to get the Argentine Football Association, the Brazilian Football Confederation, and professional sports clubs S.S. Lazio (IT) and FC Porto (PT) on board. 

Additional Read: Why Polygon is Selected for Disney Accelerator Program 2022!