MoonPay is putting crypto payments front and center at the X Games: 40 athletes drafted into the newly minted MoonPay X Games League will each receive a $2,500 signing bonus denominated in XO Cash, a stablecoin issued by Exodus.
The one-time payments will land directly in Exodus’ flagship wallet, with balances tied to payment cards so athletes can spend the funds through Visa and Mastercard. MoonPay and Exodus first announced a collaboration in December to build a stablecoin that integrates with Exodus Pay, a self‑custodial payments platform slated to launch in the second half of this year. The bonus program arrives as MoonPay begins a three‑year title partnership with X Games and a broader shift toward a league-based competition model.
Exodus co‑founder and CEO JP Richardson framed the move as especially helpful for international competitors who often face friction when trying to access and spend winnings with traditional payment apps like Venmo. “We’re actually empowering athletes to get paid, and then [enabling] them to use the money anywhere they want in the world through Visa and Mastercard,” he told Decrypt.
MoonPay has argued that paying athletes a salary—rather than relying solely on prize pools—will help offset training, travel and health‑care costs that previously left many competitors out of pocket. Keith Grossman, MoonPay’s president, has also emphasized that the sponsorship acts as a distribution channel for crypto projects, exposing them to millions of consumers aligned with the X Games demographic. “We have 35 million consumers that ultimately align with the same demographic as the X Games,” he said, noting MoonPay’s ability to bring partners into the spotlight.
Richardson acknowledged a persistent tradeoff with crypto payouts: stablecoin transactions can be publicly traceable, which could raise privacy concerns for recipients. He pointed out, however, that Exodus has long paid employees in Bitcoin and sees evolving stablecoin solutions as a way to address such issues while expanding payment flexibility.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to more accurately reflect which company is providing the stablecoin bonus.
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