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Ledger Deal with NBA Team is Latest Sign of Crypto Sports Partnership Revival

by admin June 25, 2025

In brief

The San Antonio Spurs, a professional basketball team, has struck a sponsorship deal with Ledger.
The Spurs’s new jerseys feature a Ledger-branded patch.
Crypto sports sponsorships are seeing a major resurgence in 2025.

NBA basketball team the San Antonio Spurs has signed a sponsorship deal with Ledger, according to a Tuesday statement from the hardware wallet manufacturer—the latest sign that crypto sports partnerships are experiencing a resurgence.

Under the multi-year agreement, the Spurs will wear jerseys emblazoned with Ledger-branded patches. The Paris-based firm also plans to take an “active role” in boosting the Spurs’ community engagement efforts in France, it said in a statement.

The deal forms part of Ledger’s efforts to expand its reach in both the U.S. and its home market, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier said Tuesday in the statement.

“The U.S. is Ledger’s top market globally, and aligning ourselves with an historic U.S. sports team, which boasts a deep French connection past and present, will help us onboard the next generation of sovereign individuals,” Gauthier said.

Although the Spurs is a U.S. basketball team, its star center Victor “Wemby” Wembanyama is from France.

Crypto sports partnerships

Ledger’s Spurs sponsorship comes amid a revival in partnerships between professional athletics teams and major crypto firms over the past year.

Crypto companies’ spending on sports sponsorships recently increased 20% to $565 million for the 2024/25 season on a year-over-year basis, with football-related initiatives accounting for more than half of new sponsorship deals, according to a recent report from sports marketing firm SportQuake.

Among those deals was Tether’s purchase of a stake in Italian soccer team Juventus and trading platform Gate’s sponsorship of Formula One team Red Bull Racing.

Uniform branding deals—like Ledger’s partnership with the Spurs—are a popular way for digital assets companies to sponsor athletics teams, accounting for 37% of all crypto sports partnerships, SportQuake data shows.

The recent increase in sports sponsorships marks a stunning reversal from late 2022, when Web3 firms pulled back on, or cancelled, their partnerships due to difficult crypto market conditions precipitated by FTX’s collapse.

During that time, FTX’s partnerships with the MLB, Formula One and the NBA crumbled.

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June 25, 2025 0 comments

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Crypto Trends

Solana inks partnership with Kazakhstan Ministry to advance tokenized markets and crypto education

by admin June 23, 2025

Solana announced that it has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kazakhstan government to advance the region’s crypto industry through education and boosting startups.

In a recent post, the blockchain announced that the President of the Foundation, Lily Liu, just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kazakhstan Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry. The joint collaboration is aimed at advancing startups in the region that operate on the SOL (SOL) blockchain by providing more resources and tools.

The partnership will also serve to boost crypto developer education in Kazakhstan and advance the tokenization of capital markets to attract more investors into the market.

In the short video provided, Liu explained that the foundation has been looking for partners to work with in order to advance societies and build innovation that would also serve to increase the adoption of web3 technology.

“We look for people, companies, and countries that really want to partner in that vision and bring the next generation of financial infrastructure and also financial opportunity to their people and to their country,” said Liu, adding that the foundation saw Republic of Kazakhstan as a suitable collaborative partner.

Price chart for Solana in the past few day, June 23, 2025 | Source: crypto.news

Within the video, nCMO at the Solana Foundation Akshay BD explained how blockchain technology could help lure more investors into the country’s Astana International Exchange or AIX. By tokenizing capital markets on Solana, 90% of the trading volume would be stored within the blockchain.

“And that’s how AIX becomes globally competitive with NYSE and Nasdaq,” he said.

The partnership comes nearly a month after the nation established the first Solana Economic Zone in the Central Asia region.

On May 30, Kazakhstan’s MDAI officially launched the Solana Economic Zone Kazakhstan or SEZ KZ for short. It was the first economic initiative built on the Solana blockchain and established in Central Asia.

The Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry, Zhaslan Madiyev, believed that the initiative reflects the country’s willingness to integrate advanced digital technologies into its economy.

“We are committed to building a resilient and competitive digital environment. Projects like the Solana Economic Zone allow us to test and implement next-generation solutions — from asset tokenization to cultivating web3 talent,” said Madiyev.

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June 23, 2025 0 comments

An ROG Xbox Ally X and Ally shown during Microsoft's Xbox stream in June 2025.

Gaming Gear

Microsoft announces new dream team partnership with AMD on a ‘portfolio’ of next-gen Xbox devices, all with backwards compatibility with existing games

by admin June 18, 2025

Xbox + AMD: Powering the Next Generation of Xbox – YouTube

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Microsoft has just dropped a video showcasing their plans for future Xbox hardware based on AMD technology. The main takeaways? First, Xbox will become a “portfolio” of devices including traditional console, PC and handhelds. Second, backwards compatibility with existing Xbox games is central to the new strategy.

Xbox President Sarah Bond has fronted a new video on the official Xbox YouTube channel, spelling out Microsoft’s plans for future Xbox hardware. Superficially, the big news is a partnership with AMD.

“We’ve established a strategic multi-year partnership with AMD to co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices, including our next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands,” Bond said.

What kind of devices, you ask? “That’s why we’re investing in our next-generation hardware lineup, across console, handheld, PC, cloud and accessories,” Bond explained. Notably, the new Asus ROG Xbox Ally devices flashed up in the video when Bond name-checked “handheld.”

Of course, Microsoft already partners with AMD on Xbox silicon and the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X handhelds have already been announced. So those elements aren’t necessarily news. So what is this video really about?

There may be some internal, inside-baseball dimension to all this for Microsoft. But for gamers, arguably, two issues stand out. First, Microsoft is further signalling Xbox’s transition from conventional console to a more amorphous platform.

That is most obvious in the video in the passage where Bond calls out “cloud” gaming, and a Gamepass cloud gaming interface is shown, with a large caption above that reads, “This is also an Xbox, by itself”. In other words, Xbox gaming needn’t involve Xbox hardware at all.

The other broad takeaway is backwards compatibility. Bond said the partnership with AMD will deliver the “next generation of graphics innovation,” but critically, it will do so “all while maintaining backwards compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games.”

That’s good news for existing Xbox gamers, even if it’s awfully vague. Does that mean all Xbox future hardware will be compatible with legacy Xbox games? Does it mean cloud services will do the heavy lifting when it comes to running old titles?

Ultimately, there are no specifics. Indeed, there are few specifics about anything. It’s not even totally clear if there will be any what you might call “pure” Microsoft Xbox devices, designed and engineered by Microsoft itself.

As we’ve reported recently, one narrative that’s doing the rounds is that Microsoft itself will move away from producing Xbox hardware itself in favour of partnering with third parties on devices, just as it has done with the new Asus ROG Xbox Ally.

Is this the last “pure Microsoft” Xbox console? (Image credit: Future)

In that scenario, even regular consoles would no longer be built by Microsoft. That story also suggested that future Xbox consoles would be more similar to PCs, in hardware terms, than ever before, something that certainly applies to the Asus ROG Xbox Ally, both versions of which use existing AMD silicon that wasn’t developed in partnership with AMD.

Whether some or all future Xbox devices will use generic AMD PC silicon, exactly what Microsoft’s partnership with AMD on silicon entails, all of this is unclear. It could mean custom chips, just like those in the Xbox Series S and Series X.

That would presumably mean x86-based CPUs, perhaps using the upcoming Zen 6 architecture, paired with AMD’s new UDNA graphics technology, maybe with some Xbox-only enhancements.

Or maybe it just means Microsoft and AMD making sure the latter’s mainstream PC silicon, including APUs, has a few features and optimisations to Microsoft’s liking.

It will likely be years before we find out. Going by past Microsoft leaks, any next-gen Xbox console probably won’t appear before 2027. But now you know it’ll run your old games, in some form at least.

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June 18, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

The Next Generation Xbox Consoles Will Be Powered By AMD In Multi-Year Partnership

by admin June 18, 2025

Microsoft has announced a multi-year partnership with tech giant and graphics card manufacturer AMD. The deal will result in AMD technology powering the next generation of Xbox hardware.

In a new video, Xbox president Sarah Bond explains that the partnership will see AMD co-engineer silicon for a range of devices, including the next generation of Xbox consoles.

“Together with AMD, we’re advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation to unlock a deeper level of visual quality and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI, all while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games,” says Bond.

Bond says this move reinforces Xbox’s mission to build a platform where players can take their games anywhere across multiple devices, such as handheld, PC, and cloud.

“The next generation of Xbox is coming to life, and this is just the beginning,” says Bond. “We can’t wait to show you what’s next.”

Of course, the big news here is Microsoft confirming another generation of Xbox consoles is in the works. Many have wondered what the future of Xbox as a console platform would be following the Xbox Series X/S’ weaker sales compared to the PlayStation 5 and Switch. Combined with the publisher’s increasing focus on its Xbox Game Pass subscription service and its recent initiative to bring its exclusive franchises to rival platforms, such as Forza and Gears of War, some have questioned the long-term viability of Xbox as a console ecosystem.

Xbox’s deal with AMD is the second major partnership announcement this month. During Summer Game Fest, Microsoft revealed a partnership with Asus to produce an Xbox-centric model of the company’s ROG Ally handheld systems. We played the ROG Xbox Ally during SGF, and you can read our hands-on impressions here.

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June 18, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Xbox announces AMD partnership for their upcoming generation

by admin June 17, 2025

In case you were wondering, Xbox does have plans for what comes after the Xbox Series consoles. Today, they revealed their collaboration with AMD, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. AMD has long been supporting console-makers, and will continue as we approach the next cycle. Check out the video released today with Xbox’s studio head Sarah Bond below.

This morning, Xbox announced a multi-year strategic partnership with AMD to to power next-generation gaming experiences across devices, including consoles, PC, handheld, and cloud.The collaboration aims to uplevel the player experience by delivering advanced graphics with enhanced visual quality, more immersive gameplay using the power of AI, and compatibility with player’s existing Xbox games library. Together, Xbox and AMD hope to enable play across devices in entirely new ways, delivering an Xbox experience designed for players – without being confined to a single store or tied to one device.At the same time, Xbox is continuing to work more closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming.

Stay tuned to GamingTrend for more Xbox news and info!

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June 17, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Xbox’s AMD partnership sheds light on the future of the division’s ecosystem

by admin June 17, 2025

Microsoft has no plans to get out of the console business anytime soon. The company has been reiterating for a while that it’s going to make at least one more generation of Xbox consoles. It’s now been confirmed that AMD will power the upcoming hardware, as it did with the Xbox Series X/S.

Xbox president Sarah Bond made the announcement in a short video. Under the multi-year partnership, Xbox and AMD are “advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation; to unlock a deeper level of visual quality; and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI, all while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games,” Bond said.

A leaked presentation from May 2022 (which was part of the massive Xbox leak the following year) indicated that Microsoft had yet to make a decision about the processor and GPU for the next Xbox console(s), suggesting in one slide that it planned to strike an agreement with AMD to supply those and in another that it yet had to make an “Arm64 decision.” As we now know, the company is doubling down with AMD.

Microsoft

On the surface, the AMD agreement is the main news coming out of Bond’s announcement. But, if you read between the lines, there are lots of other interesting details to tease out from what she said in the short video.

For one thing, the AI aspect of Bond’s carefully crafted statement lines up with details in the leak (and other developments) about Microsoft embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning in future Xbox games, including for things like AI agents. So the company is likely to keep going down that path.

Bond said that Microsoft and AMD will “co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices including our next-generation Xbox consoles, in your living room and in your hands,” implying that the company is planning more handhelds beyond the Xbox-branded ROG devices that are coming later this year. Those are also powered by AMD.

In addition, Bond said the next-gen of Xbox devices will maintain “compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games.” Xbox has made a commitment to backward compatibility, but that’s still welcome to hear.

Those are fairly interesting nuggets, no doubt, but there were two other things Bond said that I think are starting to shed more light on the future of the Xbox ecosystem. First, she said that her team is “building you a gaming platform that’s always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want, delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device.”

That “single store” phrasing is a chin stroker, especially in light of the new user interface Xbox is making for the ROG handhelds. The Windows-powered devices won’t only allow users to play games from the Xbox PC app, Xbox consoles via remote play and the cloud. They’ll integrate games from other PC storefronts, such as Battle.net (which is run by Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard), Steam, GOG and more. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass users have long had access to EA Play games as part of their subscriptions. Ubisoft+ is on Xbox consoles too.

Microsoft

Perhaps this concept of not being “locked to a single store” will start to work in other ways. Valve said a few years ago that it would be happy to integrate Game Pass into Steam, for instance. Likewise, Microsoft has said it would welcome Steam and the Epic Games Store app onto its PC app store (though Valve and Epic probably wouldn’t want to give Microsoft a cut of game sales). Maybe we might finally see those come to fruition in the next few years.

But how might those integrations work on an Xbox console? Bond hinted at that too. She said Xbox is “working closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming.”

Sure, that could be a reference to PC gaming. But Bond didn’t explicitly state that, which has me wondering if the next Xbox console might be more of a Windows PC that sits under your TV. That would align with comments made a few months back by Jez Corden of Windows Central, who said the next Xbox is “a PC, in essence, but with a TV-friendly shell.”

As with the likes of the Steam Deck and other handheld PCs, this would potentially give game developers a specific set of specifications to work with (though ensuring their games are optimized for as many desktop and laptop configurations as possible will still be a complex task). Perhaps the user interface Xbox is debuting on the Ally X devices is a sign of things to come on larger displays.

Moreover, the Xbox and Windows teams are stripping out unnecessary aspects of the operating system in the Xbox Ally handhelds to make them run more efficiently. What’s to stop them from doing the same in the next Xbox console? That could enable Xbox to offer a more unified ecosystem across all platforms, while streamlining things for developers who want to make games for both PC and Xbox. Don’t forget that Microsoft has been making a real effort to make Windows run more smoothly on ARM-based processors as part of its Copilot+ PC push.

We might have to wait two or three more years to get a fuller sense of Microsoft’s vision for the future of Xbox consoles. But it certainly has the opportunity to knit its platforms more closely together and make playing Xbox (and PC) games across devices a more seamless experience.

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June 17, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

AMD to design processor for Xbox Next: Team Red extends long-standing Microsoft partnership

by admin June 17, 2025

In a rather unexpected turn of events, Microsoft on Tuesday announced that it had extended its hardware partnership with AMD to include next-generation Xbox game consoles as well as portable devices. The partnership is set to last several years and span across multiple generations of desktop and portable hardware.

“I am thrilled to share we have established a strategic multi-year partnership with AMD to co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices including our next-generation Xbox consoles, in your living room, and in your hands,” said Sarah Bond, president of Microsoft’s Xbox business unit.

The announcement is the first official confirmation that Microsoft is prepping a new generation of Xbox consoles for home as well as Xbox-branded portable gaming devices that will be a part of the Xbox ecosystem. As it turns out, all of these gaming systems will continue to use semi-custom processors designed by AMD that will offer considerably higher performance than the existing Scarlett system-on-chips (SoC) powering Xbox Series X while maintaining backwards compatibility. That backwards compatibility likely means continued reliance on Zen CPU cores based on the x86 instruction set architecture (ISA) as well as on AMD’s Radeon graphics processing units.

NBA signs another “multiyear partnership” with 2K

by admin June 16, 2025

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has extended its relationship with 2K with a “multiyear partnership.”

In a press statement, the NBA, NBPA (National Basketball Players Association), and 2K say they have agreed in principle to terms for a “new multiyear global partnership expansion.” 2K has also agreed terms to extend its “longstanding relationships” with the NBA G League and USA Basketball which will “enable 2K to continue creating the most realistic, authentic, and engaging NBA video game experiences.”

As part of the agreement, the NBA and 2K are launching NBA Take-Two Media, “a modern entertainment company that will bring fans and players together through competitive gaming, social-first content, original programming, and live events.”

2K did not detail the terms of the agreement, but did confirm the series has sold over 150 million units worldwide.

“We are immensely pleased to continue our longstanding, highly successful partnership with the NBA and the NBPA and look forward to building upon the record-setting achievements that we have accomplished together,” said Strauss Zelnick, chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive.

“I would like to thank Adam Silver, Andre Iguodala, and all our partners at the NBA and NBPA for their continued support and shared vision to empower NBA 2K to become the premier interactive entertainment basketball franchise. We are excited to unveil NBA Take-Two Media and look forward to seeing how it will create an entirely new and multi-faceted NBA experience for our communities.”

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June 16, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Bitget enters three-year partnership with UNICEF Luxembourg to advance blockchain literacy among young women

by admin June 16, 2025

Bitget has committed to a three-year partnership with UNICEF Luxembourg to advance digital skills and blockchain literacy among young people through the Game Changers Coalition programme.

In a press release sent to crypto.news, Bitget pledges to support the women-focused program with the aim of reaching up to 300,000 participants in 2025. These participants include adolescent girls, parents, mentors and teachers with blockchain skills from eight regions; Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco, and South Africa.

Bitget’s educational arm, Bitget Academy, will aid the humanitarian body to establish its first interactive blockchain training module that will be held in-person and virtually. The module will focus on developing video game creation skills for teachers and the younger generation.

According to data from UNICEF, young women in low and middle-income countries miss out on $15 billion in economic opportunities due to a gap in internet access and digital skills compared to their male counterparts. As 90% of today’s job vacancies require digital skills, the Game Changers Coalition aims to close the gender skill gap.

Bitget and UNICEF Luxembourg announce partnership to deliver digital and tech skills for girls | Source: Bitget

Additionally, Bitget (BGB) is also planning to introduce major blockchain protocols and developers from across the web3 landscape to support the educational initiative led by UNICEF Luxembourg. These figures may be able to serve as mentors and partners in the programme.

Executive Director of UNICEF Luxembourg, Sandra Visscher believes that both the UN body and Bitget are in agreement that digital skills can become a powerful driver of opportunity and inclusion, especially in elevating young people.

“By collaborating with Bitget, we want to empower adolescent young people with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to shape their own futures,” said Visscher in her statement.

With the help of Bitget Academy, including support from the $10 million initiative Blockchain4Her, Bitget plans to enhance digital literacy and financial independence among women from an early age.

Bitget’s Blockchain4Her initiative has previously supported women through mentorship programs, funding opportunities, and educational resources. Another Bitget-led initiative, Blockchain4Youth also previously pledged $10 million in support of scholarships, workshops, and hackathons over five years.

Last April, Bitget teamed up with Avalanche to boost digital asset adoption and blockchain technology across various grassroot regions in India.

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June 16, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

OpenAI Seeks Indian Partnership Under ‘OpenAI for Countries’ Plan

by admin June 6, 2025

The US tech giant OpenAI is in discussions with India as part of its new “OpenAI for Countries” initiative. The initiative aims to collaborate with national governments to boost its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and talent.

The global program, led by OpenAI’s Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, seeks to partner with the U.S. and other nations to develop data center capacity and advance AI innovation. Kwon, currently in Delhi, has been touring Asia Pacific, engaging with governments and private-sector players in Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, and Singapore.

As per the reports, the “OpenAI for Countries” initiative follows a two-way partnership model. Last month, a pilot project with the UAE was announced, featuring a 1-gigawatt AI computing cluster, Stargate, in Abu Dhabi, alongside UAE investments in U.S. AI infrastructure. OpenAI aims to launch 10 such projects in its first phase, with details of a potential India-U.S. collaboration still under wraps.

Speaking at a Delhi event on June 5, Kwon emphasized India’s potential, stating, “The country’s leadership sees that maximizing AI’s benefits requires investment in core infrastructure and cultivating AI talent. This can accelerate economic growth.”

In a significant step, OpenAI partnered with MeitY’s IndiaAI Mission to launch the “OpenAI Academy,” marking its first international education platform rollout. A memorandum of understanding outlines seven joint efforts, including sharing educational content for the FutureSkills platform and the iGOT Karmayogi portal for government officials, initially in English and Hindi, with four regional languages to follow.

OpenAI will host webinars and workshops in six cities, offering up to $100,000 in API credits to 50 approved startups or fellows, and run hackathons across seven states, targeting 25,000 students. Winners will attend OpenAI Dev Day events abroad. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has also stressed making AI tools widely accessible to empower startups, developers, and researchers in India.

Also Read: OpenAI Launches AI for Impact Programme in India

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June 6, 2025 0 comments