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Voyager Digital, a cryptocurrency marketplace whose sports partners include the National Women’s Soccer League, MLB’s Oakland Athletics and NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and suspended customer activity on the platform. Voyager athletes include NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady, NFL Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk, Rob Gronkowski and Victor Oladipo.
Users have traded for around $ 1.3 billion in cryptocurrencies on Voyager, which was founded in 2018. “The prolonged volatility and contagion in the crypto markets in recent months, and the default of Three Arrows Capital (” 3AC “) on a loan from the Company’s subsidiary , Voyager Digital, LLC, requires that we take conscious and decisive action now. The Chapter 11 process provides an efficient and equitable mechanism for maximizing recovery, said Voyager Digital CEO Stephen Ehrlich in a statement Tuesday.
NWSL announced a multi-year sponsorship with Voyager in December that included “Voyager-funded cryptocurrencies for all NWSL players.” The league is now in communication with Voyager to monitor how bankruptcy may affect their partnership.
“We are aware of the current volatility in the cryptocurrency market and have been in touch with our partners at Voyager to understand the steps they are taking as a company. We will continue to monitor the situation and its possible impact on our partnership,” NWSL said in a statement to The Equalizer reporter Jeff Kassouf.
In April 2021, Voyager paid one Bitcoin to the A’s for a health season package at the Oakland Coliseum. Bitcoin was worth around $ 60,000 at the time, but is now traded around $ 20,000 USD. “We have just kept all the Bitcoins we have in Bitcoin,” A’s President Dave Kaval told SportTechie in April 2021. “It’s just a part of running a business here in the 21st century.”
The Mavericks announced Voyager as an international partner in October 2021. Gronkowski, the retired NFL star, announced a marketing deal with Voyager last fall. McGrady joined the company as an advisor in 2020, and said he invested in Bitcoin via the Voyager app. In December last year, NASCAR driver Landon Cassill expanded its Voyager partnership. Faulk also joined Voyager as advisor in 2020 while Oladipo’s approval was announced in May last year.
Voyager is not the sports industry’s first crypto sponsor to go through financial difficulties in the midst of the rapid crash in the cryptocurrency market in recent months. MLB’s Washington Nationals continue to promote Terra Club on their home turf despite the complete collapse of Terra’s crypto “stablecoin” in May. The crypto exchange FTX, an MLB sponsor with naming rights to the Miami Heats arena, is also said to have recently withdrawn from a jersey patch sponsorship with the Los Angeles Angels.
