North American esports organization TSM has suspended its partnership with FTX amid ongoing controversy around the cryptocurrency trading platform’s collapse.
In mid-November, cryptocurrency exchange FTX was thrown into the spotlight after it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. This left billions of dollars of exposure in chaos for users and shareholders.
Binance, a rival crypto exchange, was reported to be buying out FTX but following due diligence, decided to pull the plug on the deal. This sent the platform into a collapse, with their lucrative sponsorship deals with the likes of TSM and the Miami Heat up the air.
On November 13, TSM issued their own statement on the matter, stating that the organization was “consulting legal counsel to determine the best next steps to protect our team, staff, fans, and players.”
Now, they’ve suspended their partnership, which was worth a reported $210 million.
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TSM suspends partnership with FTX
Following that November 13 statement, the North American esports org put out another statement on November 16 confirming the suspension of the partnership.
“After monitoring the evolving situation and discussing internally, TSM is suspending our partnership with FTX effective immediately. This means that FTX branding will no longer appear on any of our org, team, and player social media profiles, and will also be removed from our player jerseys. This process may take some time to complete as some social platforms have made changes to their product features,” they said.
“TSM is a strong, profitable, and stable organization. We forecast profitability this year, next year, and beyond. The current situation with FTX does not affect any part of TSM’s operating plan, which was set earlier this year.”
We've suspended our partnership with FTX effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/u8vQSWnAbX
— TSM (@TSM) November 16, 2022
The FTX branding has already been removed from the team’s Facebook profiles and website, but they cannot yet change their Twitter display name following the changes made to the platform’s verification process.