Nexo has struck a multi-year sponsorship deal with Tennis Australia to become the Official Crypto Partner of the Australian Open and the broader Summer of Tennis series. The agreement covers the January Grand Slam in Melbourne as well as lead-up events — the United Cup, Adelaide International, Brisbane International and Hobart International — the company announced Tuesday.
Under the deal, Nexo branding will appear in the "Nexo Coaches Pod," visible on on-court coaching areas across the tournament’s main venues during matches. The 2026 Australian Open begins January 12 in Melbourne and, as with past years, is expected to attract hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide. Tennis offers advertisers scale and a premium audience: sports-marketing firm SportQuake estimates the sport reaches roughly two billion fans globally, and higher-income individuals are about 29% more likely than average to follow tennis.
“Partnering with Tennis Australia allows us to connect with millions of fans while aligning with a world-class institution committed to long-term thinking and future progress,” a Nexo spokesperson told Decrypt.
The tie-up represents a notable moment in Nexo’s corporate evolution. The company withdrew from the U.S. market in 2022 after regulators challenged its interest-bearing product as an unregistered security. Nexo later settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, agreeing to pay roughly $45 million in penalties and to stop offering that product to U.S. investors — without admitting or denying wrongdoing. The firm has only recently re-entered the U.S. following moves toward regulatory clarity and is working to reposition itself from a crypto lender to what it calls a “digital asset wealth platform.”
Tennis Australia’s previous crypto partnership came in 2022 with NFT platform Sweet.io, at the height of the collectibles boom. That collaboration faded as NFT trading volumes plunged later that year and Sweet.io scaled back consumer-facing operations. Still, Tennis Australia’s commercial team sees value in bringing crypto firms back into the fold: Cedric Cornelis, the organization’s Chief Commercial Officer, called Nexo “a natural fit for the AO and our events across the Summer of Tennis,” saying the two parties will explore “new ways for fans to connect with the game and the people behind it.”
This is Nexo’s fourth major sports agreement of the year. Earlier deals include becoming the Official Digital Wealth Platform of golf’s DP World Tour and sponsorships with the Acapulco Tennis Open and the Mifel Tennis Open. The move also fits a broader trend: after a freeze in high-profile crypto sports sponsorships following FTX’s 2022 collapse, some firms have cautiously returned to sports marketing. Recent examples include Ledger’s jersey sponsorship with NBA side the San Antonio Spurs and stablecoin issuer Tether buying a minority stake in Italian soccer club Juventus — an all-cash bid for majority control by Tether was reportedly rejected by Juventus’s holding company Exor last week.
For Nexo, the Australian Open deal is both a brand-rehabilitation play and a customer-acquisition strategy: a global sports stage offering exposure to a wealthy, engaged audience as the company shifts its public identity and product focus in a shifting regulatory landscape.
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