Chelsea has agreed to a sponsorship agreement with cryptocurrency exchange business BingX, which will see the company’s emblem appear on the sleeves of the club’s shirts for the rest of the 2023/24 season.

The arrangement also includes BingX appearing on the front of the Blues’ training uniforms, which will be worn before matches and during training sessions at Cobham for the 2024/25 season, which begins in August of this year. The club is expecting that their agreement will be completed in time for the sponsor to be worn for the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Middlesbrough on January 9 at the Riverside Stadium.

BingX, a cryptocurrency exchange business started in Singapore in 2018, has over 10 million users globally and offers over 350 different cryptocurrencies for consumers to purchase and sell. The company has offices in the United States, Canada, the European Union, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, however the BingX website and app are not available in certain countries, including the United States, China, and the United Kingdom.

Infinite Athlete, Chelsea’s current front-of-shirt sponsor, is set to remain on shirts for the remainder of the season but will switch to a sleeve sponsor for next season – it’s unclear who the Blues will sign a deal with for next season’s front-of-shirt sponsor. Many are wondering if Riyadh Air, the Saudi state carrier, would take over, given that club management hosted representatives from the firm last September.

This announcement is the latest in a long line of sponsor blunders for the club in recent months, with the Blues initially agreeing a deal with US streaming service Paramount Plus, but that was blocked by the Premier League due to concerns that it would upset their current broadcast partners.

Stake, a gambling firm, was the next in line for the sponsor spot, but intense fan anger caused conversations to break down and the Blues to pull out of any agreement. This left the Blues without a front-of-shirt sponsor until their £40 million agreement with Infinite Athlete came along.

It’s also not the club’s first cryptocurrency sponsorship, with the Blues previously having a crypto partner called ‘Amber Group’ as the WhaleFin logo – another exchange site – was emblazoned on their jersey sleeves. That, however, unexpectedly halted in December 2022 following the collapse of another now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange named FTX, run by American convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, known as ‘SBF’.

Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven counts of fraud and money laundering, and a second trial in March might find him guilty of bank fraud and bribery, with analysts predicting he could spend decades in prison for deceiving his over one million subscribers.

It looked at the time that the Blues would be warned off cryptocurrency sponsors following their brief seven-month collaboration with Amber Group, but that does not appear to be the case.