Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the most successful footballers of all time, yesterday announced his exclusive partnership with Binance. Ronaldo stated that the multi-year agreement will be an opportunity for fans to 'own an iconic piece of sports history' and be part of his Web3 community.
– Today we will change the NFT game and elevate football to a higher level – said Ronaldo in a video.
Binance is one of the largest crypto ecosystems, its main components include a centralized exchange and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). BSC is the second most used blockchain (after Ethereum), with 407 different applications built on it and $5.92 billion in total locked value (TVL).
Despite these impressive metrics, Binance has struggled to foster a successful NFT ecosystem. PancakeSwap, Binance’s decentralized exchange and leading protocol, is the twentieth largest NFT marketplace, with only $79 million in cumulative trading volume. Ethereum marketplaces such as OpenSea and LookRare have $31.24 billion and $23.23 billion in cumulative volume, respectively.
The partnership with Ronaldo could therefore be seen as Binance’s attempt to add value to BSC and begin increasing the blockchain’s market share in the NFT space.
This week, other significant NFT collaborations were also revealed, including the recent appointment of artist and music producer Pharrell Williams as the Chief Brand Officer for the Doodles collection.
