Polkadot is coming to the Indianapolis 500 after community members voted to select IndyCar racing star Connor Daly as brand ambassador. The year-long collaboration, which Dali announced during a press conference on Tuesday, will begin at the high-profile race scheduled for May.
A proposal to sponsor Daly was approved with 95.8% approval in a community vote on the Polk Assembly website. The plan, which was under review from February 19 to March 14, requested $290,000, worth about $2.1 million, to cover the race team's $1.7 million commercial sponsorship fee as well as other expenses.
“The Indy 500 is an iconic race and the greatest spectacle in racing – ask any race car driver and it's the only race they want to win,” said Chris Wade, a Polkadot community contributor who led the initiative. Decryption.
“In addition, Polkadot’s sponsorship of Connor includes NASCAR truck and nitrocross racing, and Connor’s expertise includes them all,” Wade added.
Daly drove in the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 in the same year and the Formula 2 series in Europe.
“He's fast, strong and adaptive, just like 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 one unified network. Currently, Polkadot (DOT) is the 15th largest by market cap according to CoinGecko, up 3.2% over the week and trading at $8.84.
“The fact that thousands of individuals in the Polkadot community — not the company’s marketing team — used their voices to vote and choose me as their ambassador is an incredible honor and reflects the power of what a freer, more open Internet in the world could look like,” Daly said in a statement to The Future.
Photo: Polkadot/Connor Daly
The sponsorship agreement with Daly, executed through Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Cusick Motorsports, is the latest partnership between the racing and cryptocurrency industries.
In 2021, McLaren Racing tapped Tezos to launch a range of Formula 1 NFTs. 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 in June 2023 with Sui blockchain creator Mysten Labs.
In January, Grammy Award-winning rapper Drake announced a two-year label sponsorship deal between Sauber Formula 1 and cryptocurrency gambling site Stake.
“The fact that I'm not just competing for a brand name or logo, but representing the developers, investors, and everyday people building the future web, is exciting and overwhelming,” Daly added. “We are giving power back to the people, while making sports history.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
