💧 Adidas on Sui

Hey frens. Welcome back to another edition of The Drop!

Now that Nike’s out of the NFT game, there’s another big sports apparel name with a new drop: Adidas. Like Nike, Adidas got into NFTs back in the 2021 cycle.

We’re covering that in an exclusive just for you, plus some big Coinbase gaming news and more.

— Kate Irwin

P.S. Let me know how you’re liking The Drop! Send me an email at [email protected].

Coinbase isn’t giving up on esports

Coinbase is now sponsoring Riot Games for the studio’s League of Legends and Valorant Esports global gaming events.

The deal officially starts next month with two esports events in Canada. The first is the Valorant Masters event in Toronto June 7. Coinbase will also be part of the MSI 2025 esports tournament in Vancouver that runs June 27 until July 12.

David Mulhall, Riot Games’ global head of esports partnerships and business development, called Coinbase a “perfect addition” to its list of brand partners and said the crypto firm can bring “engagement touchpoints and features that our global esports community appreciates.”

Crypto, however, remains a polarizing and controversial topic among gamers, including League of Legends fans. Some gamers like it and some are open to it, while others absolutely despise it, as we’ve seen time and time again when non-crypto video games toy with the idea of crypto integrations or add NFTs to their titles.

Coinbase is planning event activations, promotions, awards and other perks in the Riot deal, but the financial terms have not been disclosed. 

We do know that both parties are heavy hitters in their respective industries: Coinbase made $6.6 billion in revenue last year, while Riot made over $376 million in 2024.

Coinbase has sponsored the NBA since 2021. The US exchange also sponsored esports org Team Liquid (which itself struck a deal with Sui).

Other crypto firms have sponsored sports or esports, like Kraken with Williams Racing. Bybit struck a deal with Brazilian esports org Made in Brazil (MIBR) in 2022, and Crypto.com signed a five-year partnership with Fnatic in a $15 million deal in 2021, to name a few. 

But some deals have seen much bigger numbers. FTX struck a $210 million deal with esports org TSM, but that fell apart in 2022 when the exchange collapsed.

The esports industry more broadly has struggled in recent years, spurring an increasing reliance on brand sponsorships and corporate investment to generate revenue.

Exclusive: Apparel giant Adidas launches Sui NFTs

Adidas is dressing up in-game characters with a collection of NFT skins for Xociety, an upcoming third-person crypto shooter game with RPG elements.

2,600 Adidas Mystery box NFTs can be opened to reveal in-game skins, including black hoodies, neon Adidas tracksuits, and other looks emblazoned with the Adidas logo. 

Like Xociety itself, these NFTs will use the Sui L1 chain. Each box consists of a specific number of full clothing sets.

Each box will offer one of four rarity tiers: Uncommon, Rare, Epic and First. Uncommon will have three sets, Rare will have four, and Epic and First will come with eight sets of apparel. The boxes will mint on Tradeport on May 16 at 9 am ET.

Xociety’s deal with Adidas is a revenue share deal through which players will receive rewards “for spend by other players,” the team said, calling it a powerful way to “access real rewards across the life of Xociety.”

Xociety’s audience is primarily in Asia, with South America and Europe also making up large contingents of its playerbase. So far, the game is playable via limited-time playtests. Xociety said more than 12,000 players competed in their most recent playtest across 64 different countries.

The team has plans to “deliver more into the North American market” soon. Xociety will be available to play on the SuiPlay 0x1 handheld, too. 

Adidas has launched over a dozen different NFT collections since its first foray into the space in 2021. Its first collection, a metaverse drop with the Bored Ape Yacht Club and others, generated $23 million in revenue. But Adidas may have only kept about $6.2 million because of the other partners in the deal, research firm Ledger Insights reported.

Fomo social trading app opens public beta

Feeling the crypto fomo? There’s an app for that.

Fomo is a trading platform with social elements that launched its public beta today. It’s on iOS and traders can log in using their Apple ID (Android version is coming soon). Connecting an X account will find mutuals on the app and let you see what people you follow are buying or selling at any given moment.

The app doesn’t have gas fees, and traders can find tokens to buy or sell within seconds as well as see what tokens are trending with friends.

The app will only track what’s being done via the Fomo wallet, however, so don’t expect the ability to see what others are doing across their other wallets (including secret ones) just yet.

Fomo previously raised $2 million in pre-seed funding in February from over 100 investors.

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