MIAMI – Miami Heat’s season opening game against the Milwaukee Bucks took place on Thursday inside their newly renamed home arena, FTX Arena (formerly American Airlines Arena), and while the arena felt the same, the cryptocurrency perks were already made very apparent.
Every fan seated inside of the arena was greeted by a T-shirt laid casually on top of their seat by FTX, a U.S.-regulated cryptocurrency platform.
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However, these weren’t ordinary game-day shirts — each shirt had a scannable QR bar code on the back that, if unlocked, awarded the person with a limited edition, FTX Arena NFT.
Free NFT-shirt? Say no more!
— FTX - Built By Traders, For Traders (@FTX_Official) October 21, 2021
All @MiamiHEAT fans in attendance at tonight’s game will receive a free “You In, Miami?” t-shirt! 👕
By scanning the QR code on the back, they’ll unlock this free, limited edition FTX Arena NFT.
The future is here. You in, Miami? #FTXMIA pic.twitter.com/0t3ruJbWN7
FTX tweeted, “Free NFT-shirt? Say no more! All @MiamiHEAT fans in attendance at tonight’s game will receive a free “You In, Miami?” t-shirt! By scanning the QR code on the back, they’ll unlock this free, limited edition FTX Arena NFT. The future is here. You in, Miami? #FTXMIA”
Plus, according to Cointelegraph, for those seated in a specific section of the game, they received $500 in cryptocurrency, as well. However, this has yet to be confirmed. Local 10 News has reached out to FTX Arena for comment.
Back in April, FTX paid Miami-Dade County $135 million to rename the Miami Heat NBA arena FTX Arena until 2040 — a bold decision considering the crypto company is less than three years old.
FTX is a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform with headquarters in Antigua and Barbuda. It launched operations on May 8, 2019. Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm founded in 2017, backs the international cryptocurrency exchange, which is associated with FTX US.