Pogačar Unveils Eminem Inspired Look After New Crypto Deal

It’s going to be several months before Tadej Pogačar is chasing yellow, what with his later season start and decision to focus on single day races early on, but he’s already got hair colour to match.

The four-time Tour de France winner unveiled a new look on social media, showing off the kind of bleached hairstyle sported in the past by those trying to coordinate with race leader’s jerseys.

Or maybe that’s not what he was aiming for at all. In the caption to his latest post on social media, he referred to the rapper Eminem.

“Slim Shady – introduced me to hip hop. When I was 12 years old on my listening device was downloaded around 200 songs. All Eminem. Since then I discovered the love of rap and hip hop. Now on my repeat playlists are mostly Slovenian rappers.”

Comments include those from several pro riders. “Can the real one stand up please?” Mathieu van der Poel asks, while Kasia Niewiadoma makes a Polish rap recommendation.

It’s all light hearted, but Pogačar’s latest big sponsor is leading to scrutiny from some, with allegations of a different type of shady.

Road.cc has featured an intriguing article about the background to crypto company KuCoin, which this week named Pogačar as its new ‘global brand ambassador’ at a launch in Vienna.

“Built around the theme ‘Trust, Proven by Performance,’ the partnership reflects a shared belief that trust is not declared, but earned through long-term performance, professionalism, and discipline,” it said in its announcement.

“Rather than a transactional sponsorship, the collaboration represents a rare alignment of values between two leaders operating at the highest level of their respective fields.”

The agreement is undoubtedly a major endorsement for a pro cyclist and, given the size of the company’s business, is likely a very lucrative deal.

A troubling background behind the latest deal

KuCoin company was founded in China nine years ago by Chun Gan, Ke Tang, and Johnny Lyu. It has over 30 million customers and billions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency in daily trading volume.

“For KuCoin, trust has been built over eight years through sustained investment in security infrastructure, regulatory alignment, and operational resilience across global markets,” it said in the announcement.

“As regulatory standards continue to evolve, KuCoin has strengthened its compliance framework and governance capabilities, reinforcing its commitment to building a secure and trusted digital-asset platform for a growing global user base.”

However, as noted by Road.CC, the U.S. Attorney’s Office [Southern District of New York] announced last year that the company pleaded guilty to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

The U.S. Attorney’s announcement said that “KuCoin flouted U.S. anti-money laundering laws by failing to implement effective anti-money laundering (“AML”) and know-your-customer (“KYC”) programs designed to prevent KuCoin from being used for money laundering and terrorist financing, failing to report suspicious transactions, and failing to register with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”).”

It said that the guilty plea of KuCoin’s operator PEKEN saw the entity agree to pay monetary penalties totaling more than $297 million.

In addition to that, it said that PEKEN agreed that KuCoin would exit the U.S. market for at least the next two years. It also stated that Gan and Tang would ‘no longer have any role in KuCoin’s management or operations’ following their indictments in March 2024.

‘Billions of dollars of suspicious transactions’

U.S Attorney Danielle R. Sasson painted a bleak picture of the company.

“For years, KuCoin avoided implementing required anti-money laundering policies designed to identify criminal actors and prevent illicit transactions. As a result, KuCoin was used to facilitate billions of dollars’ worth of suspicious transactions and to transmit potentially criminal proceeds, including proceeds from darknet markets and malware, ransomware, and fraud schemes.”

The company has also paid fines in separate cases in the US and Canada, and has also run into hot water in the UK.

Worryingly, Road.cc also cites investigative publisher Whale Hunting as reporting even more serious allegations about the company.

Pogačar’s success and charisma have helped the Slovenian to build a wide range of backers and partners, further boosting an annual salary of approximately 8 million euro.

Together with bonuses and personal sponsorships, La Gazzetta dello Sport believes the star could earn an astronomical 12 million euros this year.

That estimate was made prior to the announcement of the KuCoin deal, making things even more lucrative for the multiple Tour de France winner.

However, while his broad smile and new haircut will endear him to fans, as do his successes on the bike, his latest financial deal has a different tone altogether.