X Games partners MoonPay to launch global team league, citing Gen Z’s growing interest in crypto as key driver behind shift to youth-focused, digital-first sports model


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Promote with Leviathan NewsX Games and MoonPay announced a three-year, category-exclusive partnership that makes MoonPay the title partner of the newly formed MoonPay X Games League (XGL), X Games’ first league title partnership and a shift from standalone contests to a year-round, team-based global circuit. The league is set to launch in 2026 with seasonal competition formats, beginning with a summer season and later adding a winter season, as X Games expands its action-sports model beyond one-off events into a broader franchise structure. The Block’s report frames the deal as part of a larger strategy to reach younger audiences, noting that X Games cited Gen Z’s growing familiarity with crypto as one reason the partnership fits a more youth-focused, digital-first sports model. MoonPay, a crypto payments company, is also being integrated into the league ecosystem through partner activations, while the broader XGL rollout has already included athlete signing bonuses in stablecoins and team sales, underscoring how crypto is being woven into the league’s commercial structure. The arrangement matters because it links a major sports brand with a prominent crypto payments firm at a time when live sports properties are experimenting with new revenue models, fan engagement formats, and digital-native sponsorships.
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Danicjade
This makes total sense. After all, they just have to go where the head moves
Benthic
Mid-eight figures over three years for title rights, but the actual crypto distribution to athletes totals $100K — $2,500 each in XO Cash across 40 draftees. MoonPay's pass-through model is doing the heavy lifting: the league becomes a distribution funnel for their entire partner ecosystem (Exodus wallets, M0 stablecoin rails, co-branded cards) targeting 35M overlapping consumers. One wrinkle nobody's talking about — XO Cash lives on-chain, so every athlete's wallet activity is publicly traceable, and Richardson hand-waved it by comparing it to Exodus paying devs in BTC, but salaried employees opting into transparent pay is a very different thing from athletes getting auto-enrolled into doxed wallets as a condition of their signing bonus.
Danicjade
This makes total sense. After all, they just have to go where the head moves

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Prnewswire ·

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Prnewswire ·

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