Lionel Messi’s transfer to Paris St. Germain (PSG) from FC Barcelona included a payment in crypto fan tokens. Fan tokens are a type of cryptocurrency that allows holders to vote on mostly minor decisions related to their clubs.
- The Argentinian soccer legend’s signing-on fee for the French club included an undisclosed number of fan tokens provided by blockchain-based fan-token provider Socios.com.
- Messi this week left Barcelona, the club he had been part of since the age of 13, to join PSG on a two-year deal worth nearly $75 million per season.
- PSG did not say how much of that the tokens represented, referring to it as a “large number.”
- The French club is one of a large number of major soccer teams to have launched fan tokens through Socios.com, along with Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Manchester City.
- The tokens are designed to spur fan engagement by offering them voting rights on minor decisions in their clubs’ operations.
According to Reuters, trading volumes exceeded $1.2 billion in the days preceding the arrival of the six-times winner of the Ballon d’Or world’s best soccer player award, it said.
Marc Armstrong, PSG’s chief partnerships officer had this to say
“We have been able to engage with a new global audience, creating a significant digital revenue stream,”
Socios.com took its inspiration from blockchain technology and its use cases to engage fans from across the globe.
