Crypto Exchange Kraken Bet Big on Sports Sponsorships

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Kraken 👾

Kraken are one of the longest-standing and most used crypto exchanges on the planet. Founded in 2011, they have grown to over 10 million users and were valued at upward of $10 billion in late 2023.

They are regulated in various territories globally and are seen as legitimate by the crypto space, albeit being sued by the SEC for being an unregistered broker-dealer earlier this year. The lawsuit was eventually settled to the tune of $30m.

As per CoinGecko, Kraken is one of the top 5 centralised crypto exchanges in the US by web traffic, with behemoth Coinbase accounting for 75-80% of that. Kraken has ranged from 3.3% to 5.4% US web traffic market share between March 2022 and March 2023, seeing a slight increase throughout the year on average.

Kraken however, is smaller in terms of global market share and global volume — perhaps due to their ‘less relaxed’ attitude on territory expansion and regulation compared to some of their counterparts. An example of this is the lack of availability of the exchange in Japan and other major crypto territories.

Nonetheless, the veteran exchange has now been around to see several crypto cycles, and has built up their customer base and business in a mostly compliant way.

Sports Sponsorship Strategy ⚽

Although Kraken were founded in 2011, they did not seriously enter the sports sponsorship market until 2023, 12 years later.

When FTX collapsed, Jesse Powell, CEO and Co-Founder of Kraken, took to X (formerly Twitter) to criticise the exorbitant spending by then CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Kraken reduced headcount as a direct consequence of the tailwinds created due to the collapse of FTX, with Powell angry at the irresponsible management of the then-giant crypto exchange, and the impact it had on the broader crypto market.

Several months later, in March 2023, Kraken made their first major move in sports.

They partnered with Williams Racing, the Formula 1 team, making it 8 out of 10 F1 teams in the 2023 season to have a crypto partner.

In May 2024 just over a year after their Williams Racing partnership, Kraken partnered with the rapidly growing crypto combat league Karate Combat, becoming the presenting sponsor of IFC2, during the Karate Combat event KC46.

In July 2024, Kraken turned their attention to football, scoring partnerships with Spanish giants Atletico de Madrid and English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, becoming both sides’ jersey sleeve sponsors. In both cases, the crypto exchange was named as the official Web3 and crypto partner.