The WNBA announced the release of its schedule for the upcoming 2025 season and in the process, revealed that the winners of their in-season tournament will win a peculiar prize.
The league’s regular season will include 44 games for each team – the most in WNBA history.
In that process will include the WNBA’s in-season tournament – the Commissioner’s Cup – which will hand out cryptocurrency as part of its prize pool.
The winner of the tournament will receive a $500,000 prize pool. In addition, the sponsor of the Commissioner’s Cup, Coinbase, will give each player in the championship game $5,000 in cryptocurrency.
The regular season will be paused to play the Commissioner’s Cup from June 1-17, with a championship game taking place on July 1.
According to the league, ‘All intraconference Cup games will count toward a team’s regular-season win-loss record.’
The WNBA revealed that Commissioner’s Cup participants will win $5,000 in cryptocurrency
Last year’s Cup was won by Minnesota over New York in a preview of 2024’s WNBA Finals
The Commissioner’s Cup was first introduced in 2020 and has been a part of each season since. Last year’s champions were the Minnesota Lynx, who defeated the New York Liberty in what became a preview of the 2024 WNBA Finals.
The league also announced the opening games for each team – with the first games of the season tipping off at 7:30 ET on May 16. The Atlanta Dream play the Washington Mystics while the Minnesota Lynx play the Dallas Wings.
The Golden State Valkyries, playing in their inaugural season, will host the Los Angeles Sparks.
Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever will host Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky in their first game of the season on Saturday May 17 at 1:00pm local time.
The reigning WNBA champion New York Liberty will then host the Las Vegas Aces at 3:00pm ET.
