17/11/2022
NEWS STORY
Toto Wolff admits that the collapse of crypto currency exchange FTX has left Mercedes in "disbelief".
The company, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried in 2019, and a partner of the German team, collapsed last week and despite initial hesitation all branding was subsequently removed from the cars.
The Mercedes partnership is one of several that FTX entered into, the Bahamas based company having naming rights to Miami Heat’s basketball stadium, title sponsorships of the first season of MLB Home Run Derby X, title sponsorship of the tournaments FTX Road to Miami and FTX Crypto Cup as part of the Champions Chess Tour 2022 and a partnership with Major League Baseball to place the FTX logo on the uniforms of umpires.
While Bankman-Fried is under investigation for allegedly investing depositors' funds in ventures without their approval, Wolff insists that he still believes in crypto currency.
"This situation is very unfortunate," he said. "We considered FTX because they were one of the most credible and solid, financially sound partners that were out there.
"Then, out of nowhere we can see that a crypto company can basically be on its knees and gone in one week. That shows how vulnerable the sector still is.
"It's unregulated and I believe it needs to find its way into regulations because there's so many customers, investors and partners like us that have been left in utter disbelief at what has happened," he admitted.
While fellow crypto currency exchange Binance is a partner of Alpine, Singapore-based Crypto.com is a sponsor of Aston Martin and also title sponsor of the Miami Grand Prix.
Of course, some of us were sceptical from the outset.
Check out our Thursday gallery from Yas Marina here.