Premier soccer club FC Barcelona has launched a token earlier this week in a token sale that ended in the space of two hours. In it, 600,000 tokens were sold at €2 ($2.25) each, and these tokens are now already trading above €5.6 (around $6.35).
The tokens, known as Barça Fan Tokens, were bought by the club’s supporters either through the club’s own “Socios” voting platform or through Chillz, a sports-specific token platform and exchange. The team is, in part, managed by its socios.
Total trading volumes for Barcelona’s BAR token in the first 24 hours of trading were just under $2.5 million, although most of the trading volume and price action appear to have occurred right after the token was listed. According to Chillz data, the token is still up 164%.
FC Barcelona has over 300 million supporters throughout the world, making it one of the most popular soccer clubs out there. It’s also one of the wealthiest, as according to CNBC it’s on track to become the first billion-dollar soccer club. Between 2018 and 2019, it generated record revenue of $959.3 million.
The soccer club’s token sale was first announced back in February. The BAR token is designed to promote fan engagement, with its supporters earning tokens from participating in surveys and polls. The tokens can then be used to purchase merchandise and club experiences.
The first poll, according to FC Barcelona’s website, will let fans decide on the design of a new mural for the team’s locker room. Chillz and Socios.com founder and CEO Alexandre Dreyfus, was quoted as saying:
Fan engagement has never been more important for the sports industry, and just as football is resuming, albeit without fans in the stadium, we are launching FC Barcelona’s Fan Token and are helping to boost their ability to connect the Club with their fans all over the world.
To use their BAR tokens to vote, fans will have to use the Socios.com platform. On Chillz there are tokens for other soccer clubs being traded.
Featured image by Fikri Rasyid on Unsplas
