Is this crypto’s mainstream tipping point?

16th August 2021 | Sam Volkering

He’s the biggest name in football worldwide.

He’s arguably one of the greatest players (if not the greatest) players to have ever played the game.

He’s also just left his spiritual home of FC Barcelona, signing for French mega club Paris Saint-Germaine (PSG).

He is of course, Lionel Messi.

Just how big is Messi you ask?

Well consider this…

Upon PSG officially announcing the signing, PSG shirts with “Messi” and his number 30 on the back sold out in what’s estimated to be around 30 minutes.

Although we’ve seen some posts suggesting the actual time to sell out was closer to one minute.

Furthermore, in just two days last week, the PSG Instagram account gained an extra 5.65 million followers. The day a video of him signing was posted it pulled in more than 18 million views.

This is all great for PSG. It’s a big coup. The lift to the football side will no doubt be impressive.

But this is a crypto-focused publication remember…

What makes this a crypto story is the fact Messi’s massive transfer fee was partly paid in $PSG fan tokens, a crypto that’s part of the Socios app, built on the Chiliz crypto network.

According to PSG’s official statement,

In a world first for such a high-profile signing, Leo Messi received a large number of ‘$PSG Fan Tokens’.

The inclusion of the $PSG Fan Tokens in the player’s welcome package instantly ties him with millions of Paris Saint-Germain fans around the world.

A world first indeed.

We don’t know exactly how much in fan tokens he’s got now, but he’s getting around €25 million just as a sign-on fee, plus another €25 million a year.

I’d hazard a guess that his fan token holdings probably stretch into the seven figures…

Fan tokens are something that have been surging in popularity. From PSG to Arsenal, Juventus and more recently Everton, they are being widely seen as a common staple of global football.

For example, if you happened to pick up the Juventus game from the weekend you may have seen the $JUV fan token, reasonably heavily promoted… as you can see from a screenshot a friend sent me over the weekend.

Source: editor’s screenshot

And if you’re a fan of Inter Milan, you may notice they’ve picked up a new shirt sponsor.

This is big because for the last 26 years, Pirelli (the global tyre giant) has been Inter’s shirt sponsor.

Not any more.

Now Inter has $INTER fan tokens across their chests through sponsorship with the Socios app.

The world game is changing, fast!

Fast change outside the beautiful game

But this is not the first example of mega sports stars and teams getting involved in cryptocurrency.

In Formula One, both Red Bull Racing and McLaren announced they were using Tezos as their official blockchain partner.

Both teams plan to use Tezos as the primary network for launching all new fan engagement such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Now I will say, I’ve recently been testing out NFTs on the Tezos network.

I’ve bought a few through the Tezos marketplace Hicetnunc.xyz and I can see why both of these Formula One teams have decided to use Tezos instead of other blockchains such as Ethereum.

Cost, speed, ease of use, a more sustainable approach to how the blockchain operates… there are a lot of reasons why it makes sense.

I have also heard from a source that another prominent Formula One driver has a substantial holding of Tezos tokens personally as well. Admittedly, this claim was unable to be verified.

Adding further to the combination of sports and crypto, NFL mega-star Tom Brady recently got involved with a sports collectibles and NFT business, Autograph. It’s tied up with Nasdaq-listed fantasy sports and wagering company DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG) as well and other mega-stars like Tiger Woods.

Last week Brady and Autograph released their first set of Tom Brady “Signature” and “Premier” drops which fans could buy for a range of prices.

And just a few weeks ago I spoke on a panel for a large global sports network, iSportConnect, about blockchain and crypto and its involvement in the sports industry.

The idea of sports and crypto is one that I’ve been closely following for years. Being a bit of a mad sports nut helps, add in a mad crypto nut and for me, the two make perfect sense together.

Even as far back as 2014 when you could buy merchandise from the San Antonio Spurs NBA side with bitcoin, sport and crypto has just made sense.

Elite sport, where crypto is a medium of exchange

Today we’re seeing number one NFL Draft picks putting their signing bonuses into crypto, and landing endorsement deals with crypto companies. We’re seeing players getting paid from their contracts in crypto. We’re seeing teams launch fan tokens to engage better with teams. We’re seeing the rise of NFTs as a new collectibles and memorabilia market.

This is just the start for the sports industry.

My view is that we’ll start to see teams using smart contracts to take care of things like player payments, bonus rewards, player transfers and trades. We’ll even see team ownership tokenised and sold or issued to fans and the wider sports community.

And perhaps even more exciting is that we will begin to see this trickle down from the top. I anticipate grass-roots level sports organisations start to look at how they can integrate cryptocurrency to help them grow their sport, bring awareness and attract participants and engage with fans, supporters, their communities, to thrive.

Either way, crypto and sport is a match made in heaven. And a match that I think will present a whole new economy for the world game. A match that perhaps might be the real tipping point into mainstream global adoption.

Crypto to Know

Below is our “Crypto to Know” list where you’ll find several cryptos that we think you should be taking the time to learn and understand.

They each form an important part of the burgeoning crypto ecosystem.

Several of these cryptos are doing very different things to others.

What’s key is to learn that every crypto has its own use cases, its own guiding principles, and its own particular potential.

Each crypto is to be judged and assessed on its own merits.

Our aim here is to help you understand these cryptos and the wider crypto world.

These aren’t specific recommendations but a guide to help you learn and build your confidence in operating in this space.

We will add more names to this list over time. However, if you’re new to the world of crypto, these are the names where we think you should start your education and learning.

We’ve also added links to each one.

The links are to what we believe, in each case, is the best resource for learning about that crypto.

“Crypto to Know” watchlist

Sam Volkering
Editor, Sam Volkering’s Crypto Network

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