Who said pro sports has cooled to crypto? Floki partners with ping pong

Floki is hoping to ingratiate itself to more than half a billion people worldwide with a new sports partnership.

The dog-themed memecoin floki inu has announced a partnership with World Table Tennis, or the WTT, which was created by the International Table Tennis Foundation.

“This is the first ever cryptocurrency-related partnership that the WTT has entered into and will provide floki with a significant global platform that will expand its reach to hundreds of millions of table tennis fans,” Floki said in a statement. “This partnership is a testament to the dedication, focus and seriousness of the Floki brand.”

Floki's statement said the deal will help "expose the brand to over 500 million people."

The once blossoming romance between crypto companies and professional sports leagues, teams and players has cooled since the collapse of trading platform FTX. But sponsorship deals are far from dead with Crypto.com and OKX both still have agreements with the likes of the National Basketball League and Formula 1. Mythical Games has also created a football video game with the National Football Leagues’ blessing. The game became officially live last month.

Amid the recent memecoin trading frenzy Floki’s market capitalization has swung from as low as about $280 million to more than $520 million in the last month, according to CoinGecko.

The company behind floki said it has created an non-fungible token “gaming metaverse called Valhalla” plus a “merchandise marketplace,” it said in a statement.