By Jennifer Roback
Cryptocurrency has been on the rise over the past few years and UCLA's women's basketball team is capitalizing on its popularity along with taking advantage of the NCAA's new image and likeness policy. On December 7, 2021, UCLA's Dominique Onu announced a partnership with FTX alongside her teammates.
"Excited to announce mine & my teammates partnership with @ftx_official, the best cryptocurrency exchange in the world. You in?" Onu captioned an Instagram reel to her 12,000 followers.
The partnership also includes UCLA standouts Kayla Owens, IImar’I Thomas, Kiara Jefferson, Jaelynn Penn and Camryn Brown.
FTX is known as a cryptocurrency trading platform which allows users to invest and trade all in one place.
"Our mission is for FTX.US to grow the digital currency ecosystem, offer US traders a platform that inspires their loyalty, and become a market leading US cryptocurrency exchange over the next two years," the company states on their website.
Other notable FTX sponsorships include Celebrity couple Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen, Steph Curry, the University of Kentucky's men's basketball team, the Miami Heat and MLB.
At this time, details surrounding UCLA's new partnership remain unclear but the UCLA women's team joins an array of college athletes who have started partnering with major companies.
Earlier this month, UConn's Paige Bueckers signed a historic deal with Gatorade and her teammate, Azzi Fudd, signed another historic deal with Curry's SC30 organization.