Lionel Messi, one of the greatest soccer players, started accepting payment in crypto fan tokens along with his signing fees for his move to the French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
Messi recently left Barcelona and signed a two-year contract with the French club on Tuesday. PSG in a statement said that Socios.com provided the tokens included in his “welcome package”, or signing-on fee.
Fan tokens are a type of cryptocurrency that allows holders to vote on mostly minor decisions related to their clubs. English Premier League champions Manchester City and Italy’s AC Milan are also among the clubs to launch tokens this year.
The club did not state the percentage of tokens the deal comprised of. But it said he had received a “large number”. It also did not disclose the overall financial package.
PSG said there had been a high volume of trading of its fan tokens after reports of football star’s move to the club. “The hype surrounding the latest signings in the club’s busy summer transfer window created a huge surge of interest in $PSG Fan Tokens, with trading volumes exceeding $1.2 billion in the days preceding the move,” it said.
The price of PSG’s fan token got up this week on rumors of the Messi deal. It generated new sales of around 30 million euros PSG would be taking an unspecified majority of that amount – at least 15 million euros, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Alexandre Dreyfus, the CEO of Socios.com, said PSG was benefitting from its token and other clubs could imitate its deal with Messi. “I believe this could be the start of a new trend as fan tokens and Socios.com play an increasingly prominent role across sport at the very highest level,” he said.
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