Messi joined PSG with fan tokens
Last year, the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner parted ways with Barcelona after 21 years to sign a two-year contract with PSG after being a free agent.
Although PSG didn’t reveal the sign-on fee with Messi, Forbes estimated that the Argentine makes $75 million annually and the earnings consist of bonuses, royalty fees, a cut of player rights, including jersey sales, and beyond.
But, it’s interesting to note that Messi’s reimbursement included $PSG, the official fan tokens of PSG, which made him the first high-profile player to accept such a novel payment in the football industry.
After signing Messi, the price of PSG’s fan token also rallied, even if the club did not disclose the proportion of tokens that they have given as a “welcome package” for Messi.
The emergence of fan tokens
As a prolific goalscorer, Messi is one of the most bankable stars in the sports industry. Earlier this year, Messi signed an agreement with the digital fan token company Socios.com to be their “ambassador” to promote and publicize the platform, which has also partnered with over 130 sports organizations, including a few football clubs in the Premier League, La Liga and Ligue 1.
In addition, the categories of fan tokens aren’t limited to the football industry, since Davis Cup) and Ultimate Fighting Championship also issued their respective fan tokens to enable users to enjoy similar benefits like those of a club member under the traditional membership, but the main difference is that fan tokens are digital assets that never expire.
Therefore, there is a growing tie-up between crypto-related firms and athletes. Apart from Messi, NFL quarterback Tom Brady and NBA star LeBron James also join the crypto cohort to promote the nascent markets after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The surge of fan tokens was seen during the pandemic when major sporting events and matches at the national, regional, or international level have been postponed or canceled, so issuing fan tokens is an alternative for sports clubs to generate revenues and interact with fans.
Ten best fan tokens
Different from NFTs, which are collectibles to give collectors exclusive ownership of the digital asset, fan token is a form of cryptocurrency to allow holders access to a variety of fan-related membership perks and voting on club decisions instead, including the designs of the merchandise, team bus, team dressing room, and even the captain’s armband, etc.
Furthermore, fan tokens also offer holders “learn-to-earn” opportunities so that they will be rewarded after participating in quizzes. If they accumulate a certain amount of rewards/ tokens, they will be given a once-in-a-lifetime experience to watch any upcoming matches at the best seats.
While fan tokens weren’t mainly made for investment, their performances are subject to the clubs’ popularity and achievements. According to Analytics Insight, the top 10 fan tokens to invest in 2022 are $PSG, $CITY, $SANTOS, $BAR, $ACM, $PORTO, $LAZIO, $INTER, $IBAT, and $ALPINE.
To encourage the creation of more revolutionary, creative and state-of-the-art projects created in the crypto space, Poloniex, a global crypto exchange, has listed more than half of the aforesaid fan tokens to connect users to the power of utility tokens. Moreover, Poloniex has launched an “ earn to learn” campaign to allow users to answer questions and get a chance of sharing $120,000 worth of fan tokens.
As the World Cup 2022 draws near, Poloniex also launched a virtual carnival, dubbed “ Poloniex World Cup Carnival”, to allow users to trade fan tokens to split a prize pool of $100,000 between October 24 and December 19. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
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was originally published in The Poloniex blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
