Take FTX's name off the Miami Heat's arena, the crypto exchange's bankruptcy judge orders in ending a $135 million sponsorship deal
- FTX's bankruptcy judge has terminated its $135 million deal to sponsor the Miami Heat's home arena.
- Miami-Dade County has been trying to get out of the deal since the crypto exchange failed in November.
The Miami Heat's two-year run of playing at the FTX Arena is over, after the US judge overseeing the crypto exchange's bankruptcy terminated a $135 million agreement for naming rights.
Judge John Dorsey told Miami-Dade County – which owns the NBA team's downtown site of play – to remove all FTX signage and advertising, in a court order filed Wednesday.
In March 2021, FTX and Miami-Dade agreed a deal to award the crypto exchange the naming rights to the Heat's home arena for the next two years.
But the crypto exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November after suffering a major liquidity crisis that wiped out around $8 billion in customer funds.
Its disgraced CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas last month and extradited to the US on eight criminal charges including fraud, money laundering, and violating campaign finance laws.
Miami-Dade first asked for the sponsorship deal to be canceled in November, saying that the FTX Arena name would remind former customers of the "enduring hardships" brought on by the exchange's sudden collapse.
FTX's spectacular implosion has also jeopardized deals that the exchange had signed with sporting heavyweights including the Mercedes F1 team and the Golden State Warriors.
NFL star Tom Brady and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft are among the equity investors who've been completely wiped out by FTX's collapse. Brady and his ex-wife Gisele Bündchen owned a combined 1.7 million shares.