A couple of European soccer clubs have generated revenue of more than $200 million using Socios, an online marketplace for cryptocurrency fan tokens, according to the Telegraph.
A fan token is a cryptocurrency launched by a sports team, which can be used to buy its merchandise, participate in important club decisions, and more. PSG’s fan token was launched last year and was traded on the Chiliz crypto exchange. The token’s price jumped to $44, shortly after Lionel Messi confirmed that PSG was in the running to become his next club, from around $29. It traded at over $50 at the time of writing this story compared with $23.57 on August 2, according to crypto data aggregator Coingecko.
At least 23 sporting administrations issue virtual fan tokens through the Socios.com app, which has close to one million recorded users.
Clubs earn revenue in the form of direct payments from Socios. Fan tokens for Juventus unlocked at $13.39 each on Monday, with a market cap of $17.6 million. FC Barcelona’s fan token has a market cap of $72.3 million and opened at $21.65 on Monday. PSG’s fan token opened at $33.36 on Monday, with a market cap of $97 million.
Talking about a different sport altogether, UFC announced a plan in May to issue a blockchain-based token in coordination with Socios and Chiliz, the world’s first tokenized sports exchange.
Since 2019, close to a million users have engaged with Socios which is mostly targeting young, online-oriented fans. They can buy the tokens threw by their favourite clubs and receive voting rights on certain club decisions such as which songs to be added to the stadium play-lists.