Canyon-SRAM says it remains in an “ongoing contractual relationship” with Zondacrypto – a naming-rights sponsor that, in practical terms, appears to have ceased operating and has sparked a financial and political scandal in Poland.
Since we first reported on the woes afflicting the Polish cryptocurrency exchange last week, matters have continued to deteriorate. As things currently stand, it seems deeply unlikely that both criminal proceedings and the total collapse of the company will be avoided.
Iain Treloar
The implications of this for the top-level women’s cycling team bearing Zondacrypto’s name are, as yet, uncertain. However, heading into the peak of the cycling season, Canyon-SRAM (and its development team) finds itself in a bizarre situation. It is representing a sponsor that is on the brink: its website is down, all its employees have been laid off, its CEO has absconded, there is a trail of damage in the millions of dollars, and a scandal stretching to the highest levels of Polish sports and politics.
From then to now
The Zondacrypto sponsorship was announced in late 2024, with terms running from 2025-27. At the time, the crypto market was beginning to cool; numerous high-profile failures in the industry had signalled the potential risks associated with cryptocurrency. Collapses of companies like FTX had caused global economic turmoil; within cycling, the failure of Nexthash to fulfil its contractual terms played a part in the collapse of the men’s WorldTour team, Qhubeka-Nexthash.
Iain Treloar
Nonetheless, Canyon-SRAM approached the Zondacrypto partnership with optimism; a team spokesperson told Escape Collective that “prior to entering the partnership, we conducted thorough due diligence, including consultation with external auditors.”
Separate to the team sponsorship, three Canyon-SRAM riders – Tour de France Femmes winner Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Australian veteran Tiffany Cromwell, and Polish rider Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka – also came on board as personal brand ambassadors for the company. Requests for comment from the management of Niewiadoma-Phinney and Cromwell were not responded to, and Canyon-SRAM said that “[we are not] in a position to comment on zondacrypto's brand ambassador agreements.”
There is reputational risk for the individual athletes as well as the team – and potentially legal risk, too. FTX ambassadors including Tom Brady, Larry David and Gisele Bündchen were defendants in class-action lawsuits after plaintiffs argued that they had failed to perform due diligence in their promotion of FTX (a number of the cases have since been dismissed, but not all).
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