They were late to the party, but the National Hockey League is finally on the blockchain dance floor.
While other major sports leagues and franchises were clinking digital champagne glasses with cryptocurrency giants, the NHL lingered outside the velvet rope – cautious, calculating, and noticeably absent from the crypto frenzy that had rapidly begun embedding itself into the professional sporting landscape since the turn of the decade. The league wasn’t uninterested – it was simply waiting for the right time, the right deal, and, as it turns out, the right partner.
A crypto partnership can feel like a deal with the devil – flashy, tempting, and lucrative at first, laced with the allure of digital tech innovation. But it also opens the door to scandals and volatility down the road.
The NHL observed from the sidelines as other leagues dove in head first. In 2021, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball inked high-profile, multi-million-dollar deals with FTX, while individual teams and players across those leagues also signed contracts with the exchange platform – only to see them collapse in spectacular fashion when the crypto heavyweight imploded in late 2022, leaving behind lawsuits, losses, and a wave of public mistrust. So, if the NHL was going to go all in on an industry riddled with embezzlement, it had to play its cards right – find a partner it could trust and avoid the same discomfiture that befell its Big Four counterparts.
Just a few days after the start of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the league announced its partnership with Ndax, one of Canada’s largest crypto trading platforms. This marked both the NHL’s first-ever collaboration with a crypto company and Ndax’s first partnership with a professional sports league.
Founded in 2018, the Calgary-based platform holds one of the largest strategic Bitcoin reserves of any publicly disclosed Canadian institution. Ndax recorded over CDN $17.5 billion in lifetime trading volume as of March 2025, with $1 billion in assets under custody as of January 2025.
“[The NHL] is Canada’s pastime, and Ndax is Canada’s crypto exchange,” said Max Paulsen, VP of Global Business Development at the NHL.
“We saw [Ndax] as the right partner because the data shows that our audience tends to over-index as crypto enthusiasts, and this partnership allows us to effectively drive that audience to their exchange.”
Whether it’s the puck gliding past the goal line, a faceoff in the offensive zone, or Connor McDavid weaving through the slot, chances are you’ve spotted the Ndax logo featured in one of the NHL’s high-visibility on-ice branding spots near the corner boards. It is also displayed on the league’s Digital Enhanced Dasherboards system, which allows for the digital replacement of camera-visible dasherboards.
Through its partnership with the NHL, Ndax is doing more than building brand visibility during national broadcasts – it’s offering a glimpse into how professional sports are beginning to intersect with the digital asset space. The centrepiece of that effort is Ndax ICE, an interactive playoff prediction game that rewards fans for correctly guessing game outcomes with daily, weekly, and round-specific prizes.
The grand prize? Tickets to the Stanley Cup Final – perhaps unsurprising, given the context – but the real significance of the initiative lies in how it blends traditional fandom with crypto engagement.
Participants also receive credits that can be converted into cryptocurrency rewards, which can help them purchase decentralized currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others – signalling a broader shift in how sports leagues and their partners are experimenting with Web3 integration. It’s part of a growing trend that positions digital assets as a new layer of fan participation, not just in theory but in practice.
“With Ndax ICE, we wanted to bring people closer to the crypto world through in-app activations. The goal was to combine the intensity and excitement of playoff hockey with the precision and innovation of digital finance,” said Bilal Hammoud, Founder and CEO of Ndax.
“ICE stands for innovation, confidence, and education – values we felt would resonate with crypto-curious hockey fans and help bring them into the platform.
“A lot of people in the crypto space had never heard of Ndax before, but now we’re seeing players and fans across social media getting involved. They’re saying the game is actually enhancing their experience of watching hockey – it adds a layer of engagement that makes the playoffs feel even more intense.”
Paulsen elaborated on the strong overlap between hockey fans and crypto enthusiasts, explaining how the partnership taps into this shared passion.
“Just like hockey fans are passionate about the sport, crypto consumers are equally passionate about their space,” claimed Paulsen. “The opportunity lies in dovetailing those passions – to bring casual hockey fans into the Ndax ecosystem through crypto, and vice versa.”
It is too early to determine if the partnership has proven to be a success, but both parties seem aligned on how it will be measured in the long term.
“All our partners have different KPIs we aim to meet,” Paulsen said. “The Stanley Cup playoff partnership was built to focus on what mattered most to Ndax – brand visibility, educating fans about crypto, and making it approachable for everyday fans.”
“[With the NHL partnership], we’re focusing on key areas like brand visibility, fan engagement, and long-term education. Our goal is to seamlessly integrate crypto into hockey and sports as a whole, and we’re tracking multiple KPIs to measure how well we’re doing,” stated Hammoud. “We’re closely monitoring website and app traffic, social media engagement, and other important metrics related to brand awareness.”
But how can the NHL be certain that Ndax won’t experience the same downfall as FTX? What gives them confidence that this is the right company for a cryptocurrency partnership? With major players like Binance, Crypto.com, and Kraken in the mix, what made Ndax stand out?
Hammoud thinks it’s the company’s focus on integrity.
Ndax is approved as an Investment Dealer and Marketplace across all Canadian provinces and territories and is a member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, which oversees all investment dealers, mutual fund dealers, and trading activity on Canada’s debt and equity marketplaces. The company is also registered as a Money Service Business that operates under the regulatory framework of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. This setup makes Ndax one of the more compliant and heavily regulated cryptocurrency firms in the country, meaning it is subject to rigorous oversight from the federal government.
“We’re laser-focused on compliance, security, regulation, and making sure our platform is safe and secure,” said Hammoud. “Crypto has been through a lot of rocky moments over the past several years ... For an organization like the NHL to take on a crypto partner is a pretty big deal.
“We’ve been operating for over seven years with a very clean track record. We’re regulated by a top regulatory body in Canada. Since 2019, we’ve maintained our SOC 2 Type 2 audit.”
“Now, we’re associating Ndax with trusted names like the NHL, which brings a new level of comfort.”
The wave of sports and crypto partnerships is only just beginning to build. And while it may take time for crypto to fully earn the public’s trust, it’s companies like Ndax – and partnerships like these – that may help bridge the gap between trust and the blockchain economy, one fan at a time.
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