Football cryptocurrencies – Origin, use and reasons why they may be successful in the future
3 min read
The pandemic paralyzed the world, including football. For this reason, new cryptocurrencies focused on football began to emerge this year. These are tokens of football clubs that connect fans even more with their favorite club. These tokens have a number of advantages, about which we will talk more today.
Football cryptocurrencies in brief
Football cryptocurrencies are utility tokens that provide access to goods and services related to the club on whose behalf they are issued. These are usually discounts on tickets and promotional items, ie the possibility for token holders to express their opinion on some decisions of the club, such as choosing a new jersey and the like. Issuing tokens to fans allows football clubs to maintain and monetize their fan base without making any changes to their corporate structure and without falling under legal (and economic) burden. In Italy, for example, this type of cryptocurrency is currently used by AC Milan, Rome, Juventus and Novara Calcio. However, several of the world’s major clubs already have their tokens. To achieve this result, they have partnered with Chiliz, a tokenized platform. On the socios platform. com you can find all fan tokens, not just football ones. In the picture below you can see which clubs already have their token.
However, this trend began last year, when the FC Barcelona football team launched its tokens in June 2020. It sold out within two hours, which generated sales of EUR 1.2 million. The team said the partnership with Chiliz was part of their global expansion strategy and firmly believed the initiative would significantly boost interaction between the club and its global audience. After Barcelona, the other teams decided to adopt the same strategy and now offer tokens to fans of more than 30 football teams and their list is growing.
Messi – PSG token to ATH transfer
Surely everyone registered the transfer of Lionel Messi to the French team Paris Saint-Germain FC. The price of the PSG token itself also reacted to this huge event. Within a few hours, it had risen about 150% and briefly surpassed the $ 60 mark, with the price just around $ 10 a month ago.
PSG’s management also said PSG tokens were included in its welcome pack, with media reports estimating the value of the donated tokens at € 25-30 million ($ 29-35 million). The club did not disclose the exact number of tokens in the package, but said it was a “significant amount.”
Is a new trend emerging?
The combination of cryptocurrencies and football seems to bring a new trend. In addition to the original goals of the fan tokens, the “speculative” one is also beginning to appear. The huge growth of PSG tokens caused by Messi’s transfer has sparked discussions about whether the whole area will slowly begin to follow the “football foundation”. That would mean, for example, that we could buy tokens for a club in the Champions League that we think could win. If more people started doing it, the price would start to fluctuate according to the club’s sports results. Alternatively, it will be possible to speculate on possible transfers of the world’s best players such as Messi, Ronaldo, or others.
Although it is still early for such discussions, as the entire football token industry is only a year old, it will certainly be interesting to see in which direction the fan tokens will go.
