Crypto exchange FTX hires luxury partnerships chief

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX wants to take its marketing beyond headline-grabbing sports deals with the hiring of beauty entrepreneur Lauren Remington Platt as its new head of global luxury partnerships.

Why it matters: For crypto to continue to enter the mainstream, it'll need to get in front of more audiences.

• For crypto companies, a big part of marketing their brands is actually doing marketing for cryptocurrencies and the broader web3 category, since many consumers are unlikely to be deeply familiar with the tech.

What they're saying: "So much about how people are introduced to stuff is through the messenger," Remington Platt tells Axios.

• "I think FTX has done a phenomenal job through the sports partnerships and [founder Sam Bankman-Fried's] work with Congress," she adds.
• Still, her job at the company will be to "appeal to a wider demographic that maybe wasn’t hitting through our sports partnership" such as women, she explains. (Remington Platt herself got interested in crypto through her mother's podcast on AI.)

Between the lines: While Remington Platt declined to share specifics on the partnerships FTX will pursue, she did point to payments, luxury good authentication, and digital art as areas where crypto and fashion overlap.

• She'll also work with some of the company's brand ambassadors, like fashion model Gisele Bundchen (who is also an equity investor in FTX, as is her husband, ex-NFL player Tom Brady).

The bottom line: Crypto's quest to grow its mainstream appeal continues.

Go deeper: Sports take crypto mainstream