In the latest crypto news, Crypto projects are gearing up for a surge in popularity with the opening of the FIFA World Cup, which is currently being held in Qatar, and it is expected that 60% of the world’s population will be watching this through both online and offline channels.
The World Cup-related surge in the crypto industry may also bring a wave of hype which may greatly stimulate the current sluggish economy when overlapped with the World Cup itself. As the world’s largest competitive sport, many crypto projects are sizing the business opportunities and traffic that come with such a huge event. With the arrival of the Qatar World Cup, fan token cryptocurrencies have hit a surge in popularity.
Fan Tokens
Fan token is currently the most important form of fan economy in the Web3 space and is also an extension of the traditional fan economy to Web3. Fan tokens are the product of the fan economy and the tokenization of fandom. The combination of fandom and crypto attempts to bridge fandom, whether in sports or music and cryptocurrency, creating a new class of memorabilia.
It can also bring huge traffic outside the crypto field. By owning fan tokens, fans can show their support to the celebrities and get membership benefits, such as rewards and participation in the organization’s governance and being invited to special events to interact with the celebrities.
The concept of fan tokens is still in an early stage, and token empowerment is becoming more diversified with the participation and development of commercial organizations. With the World Cup, the fan economy represented by soccer Fan tokens may have substantial visibility to explode, according to Richard Knight from Altcoin Investor.
Crypto Projects In the Fandom Business
Currently, most of the major Fan tokens are launched by commercial Fan token issuing platforms, with Chiliz (CHZ) being the largest Fan token issuer to date. Chiliz entered the sports fan economy after completing a $66 million private placement in 2018, providing and designing exclusive fan tokens for various clubs. Chiliz and its fan incentive platform Socios.com have now issued more than 54 fan tokens, some of which live on multiple major trading platforms simultaneously. Unlike the earlier social tokens, commercial fan tokens have more features because commercial organizations project the original fan economy onto web3. By introducing a fan token, a sports club can “secure the fans,” maintaining the interaction between the celebrities and the fans, supposedly strengthening the fans’ loyalty to the club and bringing the fans closer to the celebrities. These activities and rewards took much work to implement before the implementation of fan tokens. Such fan tokens have also been explored in a variety of ways, such as using fan token voting, allowing fans to choose the slogan on the team captain’s armband, gaining unique experiences such as watching games in the VIP section, accessing the backstage of the soccer team’s stadium, and having special discounts on club items, etc.
The sports industry is already enormous, and the fan economy of sports is well-developed. Sports fan tokens make up most of the fan token ecosystem and receive the most attention.
Currently, there are many types of sports Fan tokens, including the most famous soccer, followed by racing, football, rugby, basketball, free-for-all, tennis, and ice hockey. Soccer has the most developed Fan token economy, with as many as 65 teams so far.
