Currency exchange site Crypto.com has pulled out of a sponsorship deal with Uefa for the Champions League, the BBC has reported.

The five-season £428m deal is said to have fallen through at the “last moment”, amid worries about increased crypto regulation.

Crypto.com was set to replace Gazprom after European football governing body, Uefa, severed links with the Russian energy provider over the war in Ukraine.

The BBC said concerns are thought to relate to potential legal trading restrictions.

In recent years, digital assets have moved from the fringes of the economy and have entered the mainstream, with more and more football sponsorship deals being confirmed.

Chelsea and Atletico Madrid signed an agreement with trading platform WhaleFin and Manchester City have OKX as their training kit partner, while Watford have previously had Bitcoin as a club sponsor and accepted the cryptocurrency at the club.

However, Bitcoin is down almost 70% from its historic November 2021 high, Ethereum is down more than 70% and several crypto exchanges have laid off workers en masse.

Crypto.com cut almost 5% of its workforce in June (about 260 employees), according to chief executive Kris Marszalek.

Crypto.com is the fastest-growing crypto platform with more than 10 million users around the world.

The site, which has global headquarters in Singapore, also has sponsorship deals with Formula 1, the Ice Hockey World Championship and the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar.

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/