Formula One has taken its 2021 Sprint series up a gear by announcing a multi-million-dollar partnership with a world-renowned cryptocurrency exchange.

The future-forward move cements Crypto.com as the racing series’ official cryptocurrency sponsor and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) partner.

The deal is thought to be worth about US$100 million, but it’s not the sport’s first foray into the digital asset market, in March, Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One team announced its own partnership with Crypto.com. The collaboration helped produce NFTs of the first moments of the new Aston Martin F1 car hitting the track.

“We will rely heavily on [Crypto.com’s] expertise as we explore the world of cryptocurrency, an area we are very interested in, and this will be the first time as a sport we are able to offer fans the opportunity to explore this exciting world as we further increase our digital presence,” Formula One’s director of commercial partnerships Ben Pincus told Cointelegraph on Wednesday.

It has been suggested that Formula One race drivers would be given the opportunity to win a ‘crypto-themed’ award, which would be announced prior to the Belgian Grand Prix event in late August.

“We are both, at the core, technology organizations focused on innovation,” Crypto.com CEO and co-founder Kris Marszalek has said.

Besides the partnership announcement, the racing series is also teaming up with Crypto.com in their commitment to becoming carbon negative within 18 months, saying that it plans to be ‘net zero carbon’ as a sport by 2030.

“It is in the DNA of organisations like ours to find smart, technological solutions to hard problems like addressing climate change,” added Mr Marszalek.

The latest partnership is yet another example of the elite sports that are realising the potential that digital assets and blockchain technologies to further monetise fan engagement, attract sponsors, and engage a global market in ways it hasn’t been before.