Polkadot is participating in the Indianapolis 500 after community members voted to select IndyCar racing star Conor Daly as their brand ambassador. The year-long collaboration, which Daly’s company announced at a press conference Tuesday, will begin with an outstanding race scheduled to take place in May.
The proposal to sponsor Daly passed with 95.8% in favor in a community vote on the Polk Assembly website. The plan, reviewed from February 19 to March 14, requested 290,000 DOTs, worth about $2.1 million, to cover $1.7 million in commercial sponsorship fees and other costs for the race teams.
“The Indy 500 is iconic and the greatest spectacle in racing. If you ask any race car driver, this is the only race they want to win,” said Polkadot community contributor Chris Wade, who spearheaded the initiative. decryption.
“Additionally, Polkadot’s sponsorship of Conor includes a NASCAR truck and a Nitro Cross Race, and Conor’s experience spans them all,” Wade added.
Daly competed in the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 that same year, and also competed in the Formula 2 series in Europe.
“He’s as fast, strong and adaptable as Polkadot,” Wade said.
Launched in 2020 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, Polkadot is a “multi-chain network” that aims to connect different specialized blockchains into a single unified network. Currently, Polkadot (DOT), the 15th largest blockchain by market capitalization according to CoinGecko, is trading at $8.84, up 3.2% for the week.
“The fact that thousands of individuals from the Polkadot community, rather than our corporate marketing team, used their voices to vote and choose me as their ambassador is an incredible honor and a reflection of what a freer and more open Internet can look like in the future.” Daly said in a statement.
The sponsorship deal with Daly, executed through Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Cusick Motorsports, is the latest partnership between the racing and cryptocurrency industries.
In 2021, McLaren Racing teamed up with Tezos to launch a Formula 1 NFT collection. In February 2022, Red Bull Racing signed a $150 million sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency exchange Bybit. The Red Bull Racing deal was followed by another deal with Sui blockchain creator Mysten Labs in June 2023.
Last January, Grammy Award-winning rapper Drake announced a two-year naming sponsorship deal between Sauber Formula 1 and cryptocurrency gambling site Stake.
“It’s thrilling and overwhelming to know that I’m competing to represent not just a brand name or logo, but the developers, investors, and regular people who are building the web of the future,” Daly added. “We are bringing power back to the people, making sports history.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
