The Crypto.com Coin has surged to a new all-time high after the Hong Kong company behind the token bought the naming rights to the Staples Center, the arena where the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings play basketball.

The CRO token surged 37.9 per cent to US56.8c, and had earlier traded as high as 57.8c, following the announcement of the US$700 million, 20-year deal. The token is currently the No. 16 by market capitalisation, according to Coingecko.

Crypto.com has been on a tremendous sports marketing campaign in recent months, with a US$30 million, three-year deal with French football club Paris Saint-Germain; a US$175 million, 10-year deal with United Fighting Championship (UFC); and ad patch partnership with the Philadelphia 76ers.

They also inked a deal in March with the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League that sees their branding on center ice, signed a $100 million deal  in July with Formula 1 to sponsor their Sprint series, and partnered in August with Italian soccer league Lega Serie A.

Lastly, late last month Crypto.com signed A-lister Matt Damon to be the face of the company, starring in an ad campaign “Fortune Favors the Brave.”

FTX exchange meanwhile has signed American sports stars Tom Brady and David Ortiz to star in ads for their platform and bought naming rights to the Miami Heat’s arena.

Sports sponsorships have been particularly popular for crypto exchanges, as apparently many sports fans are also into crypto.

Crypto market up 1.2%

Overall late this afternoon the crypto market was at $2.61 trillion, up 1.16 per cent from yesterday.

Bitcoin was trading for US$60,017, up 1.0 per cent from 24 hours ago, and has been trading in a range from US$59,560 to US$60,955.

Ethereum was up 2.5 per cent to US$4,261.

Coingecko

Avalanche and Algorand were the other top 20 coins, other than the Crypto.com Coin, to post a big movement today.

AVAX was up 11.3 per cent to US$ 106 and ALGO was up 13.4 per cent to US$1.88.

The biggest gainer in the top 100 had been Audius, which soared 49.9 per cent to $3.21.

Loopring was the biggest loser, dropping 9.7 per cent to $2.49, cooling after a red-hot run.

Also, the Sydney-founded Immutable X token (IMX) had gained 12.7 per cent to $US6.14, entered the top 100 at No. 97.

The coin powers a layer 2 scaling solution for NFTs, using StarkWare technology to escape high Ethereum gas fees.