Leviatan beat Xi Lai Gaming 13-7 in the VCT Americas playoffs this week, but the match also underscored a quieter shift: the esports teams on stage are carrying fewer crypto logos than they did a year ago. The decline of crypto sponsorships in competitive gaming, once a booming crossover, may signal a lasting move toward older funding sources — and that could reshape how teams budget for the next season.
The match on stage
Tuesday's playoff game at the VCT Americas venue wasn't just a 13-7 rout. It was one of the highest-viewed matches of the split, drawing attention to the rosters themselves. Neither Leviatan nor Xi Lai Gaming wore a crypto exchange patch on their jerseys. That’s a noticeable change from 2025, when half the league’s teams carried deals with exchanges or token projects.
Team representatives confirmed to reporters backstage that sponsorship renewal talks with crypto firms have slowed this year. One general manager, speaking on background, said the offers that did come in were for about 30% less than last year’s rates.
Why the sponsorships cooled
The crypto sponsorship boom in esports peaked around 2024, when exchanges and NFT projects flooded in with seven-figure deals. But the market turned. Regulators in the U.S. and Europe tightened rules on crypto advertising aimed at younger audiences. Several high-profile token projects collapsed, leaving teams with unpaid invoices. By early 2026, most esports organizations had written off crypto as a reliable revenue line.
“We’re back to selling car insurance and energy drinks,” one team operations director said dryly. The shift is most visible in the VCT Americas league, which had been a testing ground for crypto-native sponsors like exchange-backed tournament badges.
The timing isn't great for teams. Player salaries in Valorant have climbed 15% year-over-year, according to league data shared with GFDaily, and the loss of crypto money creates a gap that traditional sponsors haven’t fully filled.
The pullback is forcing teams to make harder choices. Instead of signing three players for a six-man roster, some are trimming to five and relying on substitutes. Others are delaying infrastructure investments like new practice facilities.
Xi Lai Gaming, for instance, announced last month that it would not renew its lease on a dedicated streaming studio — a facility funded largely by a now-expired crypto partnership. Leviatan, meanwhile, has been shopping a minority stake to traditional venture capital firms, a process that sources say is moving slower than expected because of the league’s uncertain sponsorship picture.
The longer-term impact could be a consolidation in the esports market. Teams that built their budgets around crypto checks may not survive without them. The end-of-year transfer window, which opens in September, will be the first real test of how much the funding shift has changed the league’s economics.
