Amber Group Reportedly Cancels $25M Chelsea FC Sponsorship Deal

• Amber Group is also reportedly laying off roughly 300 employees.
• The cryptocurrency dealer is also closing down its retail activities.

Amber Group, a cryptocurrency trading business located in Singapore, is reportedly ending a $25 million sponsorship arrangement with the football team Chelsea FC as published by Bloomberg and cited by an anonymous source.

To reduce its headcount to around 400, Amber Group, financed by Temasek and Sequoia Capital, is also laying off roughly 300 employees. According to the report, the company peaked with over 1,100 employees.

For the remainder of the 2022–2023 season, Chelsea will wear jerseys advertising Amber’s WhaleFin trading platform. During a cyclical downturn in the crypto industry, several significant firms have collapsed, including FTX, BlockFi, and Celsius Network, prompting the company to downsize its employees and cancel the sponsorship agreed upon only seven months ago.

Curbing Expansion Plans

In order to concentrate on institutional investors and corporates, the cryptocurrency dealer is also closing down its retail activities, reducing its client base from hundreds of thousands to approximately 100. Furthermore, an FT report claims that Amber has suspended its growth ambitions after raising just $50 million of an anticipated $100 million round.

Some on-chain experts have speculated that Amber Group would soon hit the road similar to FTX-affiliated trading partner Alameda Research did last month. Cryptocurrency investigator lookonchain has claimed that Amber Group only has $9.46 million in assets.

Amber Group managing partner Annabelle Huang rebutted the accusations on Twitter, writing that the company “operate business as usual” and that “withdrawals are open as usual.” A former employee of Amber Group in Shenzhen informed the South China Morning Post that dozens of other workers have not yet received severance payments that were promised on December 5.

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