The embattled cryptocurrency exchange Binance has unilaterally terminated its sponsorship deal with the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The world’s largest crypto exchange was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month, the CFTC in March, and more recently, it has been cutting costs.

In a five-year deal first announced in January 2022 and rumored to be worth $8 million a year, Binance was the joint global title sponsor along with Adidas. His logo appeared next to the sportswear company until this afternoon. It was also the main sponsor of the main soccer tournament in Argentina, which is why references to Torneo Binance are still displayed on the official website.

Binance announced the parting of ways in a cheep yesterday saying: “We regularly assess the results of our partnerships around the world and unfortunately, despite being offered time and opportunity, AFA has not fully met its contractual obligations.”

The irony is that getting the sponsorship was a bitter event. The national team already had a sponsorship deal with the ByBit exchange and a fan token deal with Socios. When Binance first announced the sponsorship in January 2022, he was implementing his own fan token platform and planned one for the Argentine team, captained by Lionel Messi during a World Cup year.

Socios was up in arms because he had already issued a fan token and was in an ongoing relationship. He took legal action and plans for Binance’s Argentinian Fan Token were abandoned. Later in the year, Socios expanded its fan token offering. With the enduring crypto winter, the ARG fan token market cap is now less than $2.5 million.

Meanwhile, it has been widely reported on Twitter and in the press that Binance has cut more than 1,000 employees over the past few weeks. He also cut a number of staff benefits, “taking into account the current market environment and regulatory climate which has unfortunately led to declining profits,” according to a leaked internal message.

In February, Binance’s stablecoin partner Paxos was instructed to stop minting new Binance USD stablecoins. Furthermore, bank collapses earlier this year affected major cryptocurrency on-ramps. Starting new relationships while sued by the SEC and CFTC will be more than complicated.