Formula One team Mercedes-AMG Petronas has recently became one of the latest sports team to suspend its sponsorship deal with crypto exchange FTX.
A Mercedes-AMG Petronas team representative informed The Wall Street Journal that the team would put the deal on halt “as a first step” while it looks into the ramifications of FTX’s collapse.
As a result, the FTX branding will be taken off of the team’s car for the São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil.
The team announced on Thursday that it initially planned to keep the branding throughout this weekend’s next-to-last race of the season. However, that plan has changed.
FTX has been taken down from the partners page on the team’s website, and the link highlighting the FTX deal no longer works. Nevertheless, the FTX logo can still be seen at the bottom of the website at time of writing.
The FTX agreement was signed back in September 2021 by Mercedes-AMG Petronas, who went on to win the World Constructors’ Championship for the ninth consecutive year by accruing the most points. The sponsorship agreement’s terms were never made public.
Sometime around the Miami Grand Prix competition, FTX and Mercedes-AMG Petronas started an NFT project in May.
Just some time ago, another sports sponsorship deal was called off — namely by the basketball team Miami HEAT and Miami-Dade County. According to the contract, FTX is required to fork out $16.5 million within 60 days.
