They say history tends to repeat itself. This is certainly the case with the advancement of cryptocurrency.
Many have compared what is taking place to the early days of the Internet.
From a development perspective, we can see how this is true. There was a lot of infrastructure to be laid. The early platforms did not interact meaning that a phase of interoperable development was required.
This has caused many to try and guess what time period we are in now. My guess is that we are circa 1995.
That said we are seeing something else. During the Dotcom era, we saw a lot of crazy financial things taking place. Presently, we do not see a great deal of things that mirror that time, yet. However, that could come as the mania really sets off. We will have to see if the development outpaces the craze that tends to go with new technology.
Sponsorship is big business for corporations. As companies get bigger, they look to align themselves with the customers of other entities. Of course, little is bigger than professional sports.
This is an important market for companies since sports tends to hit upon some key demographics. Because of that, companies spend a fortune to advertise and market to the sports fans.
Recently, we saw the crypto exchange FTX win the naming rights to the Miami Heat (NBA basketball). This is mirroring what happened in the late 1990s/early 200s when internet stocks were going through the roof. Those companies were plastering their name all over the place.
Of course, many companies went public during that time. We saw the same with Coinbase a couple weeks back. There is a major difference this time. During the Dotcom run, many of those companies had no application, let alone profits. Coinbase is doing tremendous business right now.
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Grayscale is now looking to get their name out there to a much greater degree. This is the leading company in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency trust money. They have near $40 billion under management.
So Grayscale decided to partner with the NFL to help achieve that end. To be specific, the fund is linking itself with the New York Giants.
Grayscale is now a sponsor of the New York Giants, which makes the team the first in the National Football League to form a partnership with a cryptocurrency company.
As part of the deal, Grayscale, the “Official Digital Currency Asset Management Partner of the New York Giants” will also be a Presenting Home Game Sponsor, a Supporting Sponsor of Giants Training Camp, and will host “voluntary, educational seminars on cryptocurrencies for Giants personnel” every year, according to a Wednesday press release.
The NFL is making news with cryptocurrency, or at least some of their players are. Russell Okung has decided to take part of his salary in Bitcoin. We also saw the overall #1 pick in this year's draft get part of his signing bonus, reported to be about $24 million, in cryptocurrency.
This is how it starts. A few celebrities start the ball rolling by bringing in more publicity. This gets the attention of the average individual who starts to investigate what is taking place.
Right now is a great time for professional sports teams to start aligning themselves with cryptocurrency firms. The knowledge level, overall, is low at the moment. However, things are starting to move forward especially with the NFT market. This is something that is ideally suited for sports teams and their players.
We already saw the NBA take advantage of this by creating NBA Top Shots. When it comes to content, professional sports teams as well as their teams have a ton of it. Being able to leverage this could not only bring in big profits, it can also tie itself closer to the fanbase.
While the Dotcom era was crazy from a financial market standpoint, the push forward as a legitimate industry. We are seeing the same thing with cryptocurrency. As firms get more attention and align themselves with traditional businesses, we will see it penetrating more areas of the business world.
This will also likely filter to the individual consumer.
Mainstream adoption is a process that entails many factors. Part of it is for people to start to learn some of he names of companies that are involved in this new field. After all, who can forget all those Yahoo commercials during the craze of that era. Of course, Yahoo was probably the epitome of excess valuations at a time when everything was nuts.
Nevertheless, the company did manage to stick around for a couple decades and the applications are still around today.
What cryptocurrency companies will be around in 20 years? We will have to be see how things unfold. However, what is taking place is starting to mirror what companies did during the last major technological boom.
With how cryptocurrency is starting, it looks like it might make a bigger impact upon society than the Internet did.