Nexo has secured a multi-year agreement with Tennis Australia to become the Official Crypto Partner of the Australian Open and the Summer of Tennis.
The deal covers the Australian Open alongside the Summer of Tennis series, which includes the United Cup, Adelaide International, Brisbane International, and Hobart International, the company announced Tuesday.
Nexo’s branding will appear through the “Nexo Coaches Pod,” with visibility on on-court coaching areas across the tournament’s major venues during matches.
The 2026 Australian Open begins January 12 in Melbourne and is expected to draw hundreds of millions of viewers globally, as it typically does each year.
Tennis offers brands access to two billion fans worldwide and an affluent demographic, with higher-income individuals 29% more likely to follow the sport than the average person, according to sports marketing firm SportQuake’s report.
“Partnering with Tennis Australia allows us to connect with millions of fans while aligning with a world-class institution committed to long-term thinking and future progress,” a Nexo spokesperson told Decrypt.
It’s a long way from its withdrawal from the U.S. market in 2022 after multiple state and federal regulators challenged its interest-bearing product as an unregistered security.
The company later settled with the SEC, agreeing to pay about $45 million in penalties and cease offering the product to U.S. investors without admitting or denying wrongdoing.
It only recently re-entered the U.S. after regulatory clarity was achieved. It is now seeking to shed its crypto-lender status and rebrand as a “digital asset wealth platform.”
The year 2022 also marked Tennis Australia’s Australian Open collaboration with NFT platform Sweet.io, during a time when demand for digital collectibles had been hovering at an all-time high.
That partnership faded as NFT trading volumes collapsed later that year, and Sweet.io has since dialed back its consumer-facing NFT operations.
Despite those past challenges, Tennis Australia Chief Commercial Officer, Cedric Cornelis, called Nexo “a natural fit for the AO and our events across the Summer of Tennis.”
“Together, we’re creating new ways for fans to connect with the game and the people behind it,” Cornelis added.
The deal marks Nexo’s fourth major sports agreement this year as the platform became the Official Digital Wealth Platform of the DP World Tour and signed agreements with the Acapulco Tennis Open and Mifel Tennis Open earlier this year.
Crypto’s once-booming sports deals, derailed by crypto exchange FTX’s 2022 collapse and the demise of its headline sponsorships, have begun to re-emerge this year.
Recent deals include Ledger’s jersey sponsorship with NBA team the San Antonio Spurs and stablecoin issuer Tether’s minority stake in Italian soccer club Juventus, though the stablecoin giant’s all-cash offer to acquire majority control was rejected by holding company Exor last week.
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