Argentinian soccer legend Lionel Messi made his US debut earlier this month, immediately racking up wins for his new team, Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami. But even as the world-famous footballer takes Inter Miami to a new level, he’s also revolutionizing the economics behind the team. Printed across the front of Messi’s bright-pink home jersey is an ad for XBTO, a new venture in cryptocurrency…and soccer fans around the world are taking notice.
Inter Miami’s relationship with the crypto world has been complicated, to say the least. One of the team’s most high-profile sponsorship—complete with naming rights to their arena—came from none other than FTX, the revolutionary crypto exchange that collapsed amid allegations of massive fraud and embezzlement.
But even as the dust still settles in the FTX scandal, Inter Miami is forging ahead with venture capital company XBTO, seeing as much success in that partnership as they have on the field. Jerseys with “Messi” on the back and “XBTO” on the front have sold out through the fall, and the demand for branded merchandise like this is only growing among fans—all this in spite of the fact that XBTO doesn’t even do business American investors.
But in light of the success of the Inter Miami partnership, the company’s future is looking bright.
“We used to keep our head low, and do the work, we were sort of behind the scenes, coding algos, making liquidity better on exchanges in various currencies, and just making investments,” XBTO founder Philippe Bekhazi told Bitcoin Magazine. “I think we’ve gotten to a scale now where we need to be more vocal, we need to be out there, we need to show the world that we exist.”
But the economic boom surrounding Messi’s move to Miami doesn’t end there! Messi is quickly becoming a fascinating case study in economic success. Check out this breakdown from Biz Doc Tom Ellsworth for a full analysis.
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