NHL Sign First Crypto Trading Partner, Ndax

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NHL x Ndax 🏒 

Ndax, one of Canada's largest crypto trading platforms, and the National Hockey League (NHL) have announced a new partnership, naming Ndax the Official Crypto Trading Platform Partner of the NHL during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

This is a first for both, with this being Ndax’s first-ever professional sports league partnership and the NHL’s first-ever crypto trading platform partner.

NHL PR pitches this as a ‘Canadian Partnership’, with the “Ndax logo appearing in one of the League’s camera-visible corner in-ice brand positions for all Canadian playoff games.”

As part of the partnership, Ndax will launch a dedicated 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs campaign — Ndax ICE. It will feature daily, weekly and round-based giveaways with prizes including credits to be used to exchange for crypto. The most prestigious prize are tickets to the 2025 Stanley Cup Final.

Ndax were recently approved as an Investment Dealer and Marketplace across all Canadian provinces and territories, and a member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO). They have recorded over $17.5 billion in lifetime trading volume as of March 2025, with $1 billion in assets under custody as of January 2025. The platform also holds one of the largest strategic Bitcoin reserves of any publicly disclosed Canadian institution, reinforcing its position as a trusted leader at the intersection of finance, technology, and innovation.

BilalHammoud, CEO of Ndax said:

Analysis & Concluding Thoughts 🧠

NHL join the ATP Tour and NFL in announcing their first crypto partners of late, with both signing deals with European crypto exchange BitPanda.

It’s now a question of who doesn’t have a crypto partner, rather than who does.

This increase of major crypto partnerships in sports right now is due to the following things:

(1) Regulation is clearer. Brands no longer fear blowback that haunts from FTX, Terra Luna debacles, alongside DraftKings Reignmakers lawsuits. But we are living through crypto regulation. It’s already happened in the EU, APAC and the Middle East, and is still developing. It’s happening in the U.S. as we speak. And it’s going to happen in the U.K by 2026 under the current government.

(2) Crypto exchanges are printing money and have diversified revenues. In the last few years, crypto exchanges have been less exposed to cycles of low-to-high-to-low volumes that reflect cryptomarket cycles. That’s because they have built out other products, beyond trading, that drive revenue to them.

(3) Incumbent players are offering crypto services. The lines are now blurred. Robinhood and Revolut offer crypto services… but now so do BBVA, one of Europe’s largest banks. There is a convergence happening at a rate of naughts between Finance and Decentralised Financial infrastructure, which cryptocurrency and blockchain are key to.

Partner Segmentation

Concurrently, we’re seeing a spectrum of crypto partners optimising for different things.

There are mainly two partners in this industry for sports teams and leagues, and that’s (1) Exchanges and (2) Blockchains.

There are also (3) Gaming companies (Mythical Games, Sorare, Matchday etc.) who will have licensing agreements and minimum guarantees, and (4) Fintechs / Trading firms who have crypto products (Robinhood, Revolut, eToro) — who make up the rest of crypto category sponsors for sports brands.

With regards to (1) Exchanges, they are still spending a lot of money.

That’s mainly because their revenues are high and cash flow is much healthier than most blockchains.

For example, Coinbase’s Q4 2024 revenue was $2.3bn. Additionally, these businesses are also increasingly regulated and licensed, with diversified streams of revenue beyond just trading fees.

Exchanges will typically optimise for:

a) Accounts opened
b) Funded accounts
c) Overall brand awareness.

Some of these exchanges also have their own blockchain infrastructure plays; Kraken who have launched layer 2 scaling solution Ink, have joined Coinbase in having their own infrastructure, who themselves launched layer 2 Base 18 months ago.

This gives some exchanges an advantage; pay lofty exchange fees but have infrastructure that you can use to activate fans.

(2) Blockchains, on the other hand, are not throwing around cash in huge deals, like they once were.

Layer 2 Ethereum solution Polygon, for example, reportedly spent 8-figure sums on the likes of Nike and Starbucks, who both closed down their Web3 operations 3 years later.

Blockchain Algorand spent huge sums partnering with FIFA during the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Fast forward to 2025, those deals are happening at a lower frequency, at much lower fees, with more integrated strategies.

Blockchains want a clear return on their investment, typically optimising for:

1. Wallets Created onchain

2. Wallets Funded onchain

3. Onchain activity

4. Value transferred onchain

These infrastructure providers want to build with teams and leagues, and share in the upside.

To summarise:

1. We’re in a much more regulated environment, where banks themselves are partnering with crypto exchanges, and this is making sports teams and leagues more comfortable with this sponsorship category.

2. Crypto exchanges are where the big dollars are coming from in this partnership category…

3. But as the lines between crypto and finance + tech blur, it will be interesting to see if crypto sponsor categories remain or become part of something bigger.

4. NHL have joined almost every other major league in sports in having a crypto partner.

I still think almost everyone, apart from those at the bleeding edge, is under indexing the impact that regulatory clarity has on this industry.

Blockchain is growing up, and the impact it has on sports will be the same as it has on every other industry.

More Sports & Web3 Stories

• Tether boosts Juventus stake to 10%, Now Second Largest Investor (Read more here)

• Mythical Games to Launch FIFA Rivals Web3 Mobile Game in June (Read more here)

• From Law360: Kalshi, Crypto[dot]com Fight Md. Regulator On Sports Contracts (Read more here)

• Shaq Inks Deal to Settle With FTX Investors Over Boosting Failed Crypto Exchange (Read more here)

• Polymarket traders can now bet on Indian Premier League matches (Read more here)

• SI Tickets become Official Fan Experience Partner for LA Angels (Read more here)

General ‘Stuff’ that Could Impact You

• Ubisoft Partners with Immutable on Multi-Million Player Franchise: Might and Magic Fates (Read more here)

• Federal Reserve Withdraws Crypto Rules for Banks (Read more here)

• Decentralized Wireless Network Helium Reveals AT&T Collab (Read more here)

• TON Foundation Appoints MoonPay Co-Founder, Maximilian Crown, as CEO (Read more here)

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