Exclusive: Adidas quietly steps into crypto gaming partnership
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Photo: Crypto: The Game
Players still standing in the second season of Crypto: The Game, a Survivor-inspired tournament for a pot of pooled ether, will get to bid on 10 one-of-one adidas tracksuit-skins Thursday afternoon for an in-game advantage.
Why it matters: It's a sign that major brands are still open to cutting deals with web3 companies, suggesting that at least some of the sector's stigma is dissipating.
Between the lines: Adidas' partnership with Crypto: The Game comes with little fanfare, but a spokesperson at the company confirmed its participation with Axios, saying little else.
Flashback: The iconic streetwear brand is no stranger to digital assets, garnering some success with NFTs alongside Nike, Tiffany's, and Gucci during the Metaverse heyday of 2021.
- Revenue estimates from the last cycle looked promising.
What's happening: CTG kicked off its second season earlier this week, with 800 players vying for a pot of 80 ETH, derived from ticket sales.
- The game takes a 10% cut; the prize still amounts to over $250K.
Zoom in: The first season of the game generated buzz earlier in the year for its NGMI-premise and WGMI-vibes — folks vote each other off until there's only one left standing, though, gameplay is described as wholesome.
Behind the scenes: The highest bidder of each item will get an advantage, and the overall highest bid will win the advantage for the entire tribe, according to game creator Dylan Abruscato.
- The second season stepped up some aspects of operations — it's built on Coinbase's Base network and entries are now NFT-based (previously, entrants sent ETH to a multi-sig).
- Crypto-native shops including Uniswap, Lens, Wormhole, Safe and POAP sponsored various challenges — think scavenger hunts and revamped nostalgia games.
The bottom line: The adidas advantage is real, but we agreed to keep what it is under wraps for fun's sake.
