NANO (NANO)–The falling price of cryptocurrency has not managed to dampen the spirit of one community.

Despite experiencing a 94% decline in price since January’s all time high, the community surrounding NANO has come together to support a marketing campaign in the form of sponsoring a Spanish E-sports team.

Under the umbrella of The Nano Center, “a community born collective with the express aim of promoting Nano and its virtues to as wider audience as possible,” investors and enthusiasts of NANO have targeted competitive gaming as its first foray into marketing and bringing greater attention to the world’s fastest cryptocurrency. Originally the proposal of one Reddit user, u/mkd, the fund has gone on to raise over 5K USD (~2400 NANO as of writing), in the first 36 hours of existence. The project’s goal is 7400 USD, an amount that will pay for the direct sponsorship of the Counter Strike Global Offensive team, KPI Gaming, a competitive E-sports organization based out of Spain.

In exchange for the sponsorship money, KPI Gaming will change their name to NANO KPI in addition to wearing NANO branded clothing in an upcoming tournament in Valencia, Spain, an event that will draw the attention of over 40,000 viewers. While the project has yet to grasp the attention of the broader crypto-audience, it has managed to strike a positive nerve within the NANO community, with users invigorated by the opportunity to contribute to the growth and development of their preferred currency.

For the cost of several thousand dollars, the NANO community has managed to band together–even in a time of great financial loss–to increase their exposure to a broad base of potential users. Twitch, the popular streaming service for gaming, has already been targeted by the NANO community as an outlet for the currency to participate on, in the form of tips, wagers and other transactions. The sponsorship of KPI is an extension of this target audience, and another stepping stone in raising awareness for the zero-fee, near-instant transacting currency NANO.

NANO Community Collaboration Despite Price Fall

While 5K is not a life-changing amount of money, particularly when the 2400 NANO collected was worth nearly 43000 USD just months ago, it does represent the power of decentralized currencies and the communities they foster. The general public has been inundated with the quick riches and overnight millionaires associated with cryptocurrency, giving the warped impression of greed and profit-chasing. In reality, the crypto user-base has been characteristically generous with its wealth, having spawned a number of million-dollar charities including the 55 mln USD Pineapple Fund.

As opposed to investing in traditional stocks, which are comprised of executive boards and companies to drive profit, cryptocurrency investors are going to have to put forth more ingenuity to see their assets grow. Despite plunging prices, communities across the industry of cryptocurrency are beginning to band together in an effort to build organic growth for their currencies, in addition to adoption for the general technology of crypto. The end result has been an exponential increase in partnerships and real world use cases for cryptocurrency over previous years, despite 2018 being a near-constant bear market for the industry. If crypto–and its investment base–can manage to weather the storm of the volatile market, 2018 will likely be remembered as the year of genuine cryptocurrency growth, in spite of the falling market cap.

You can find more about the sponsorship and other community-based projects at The NANO Center.