Lionel Messi’s transfer to Paris St Germain (PSG) from Barcelona included a payment in crypto fan tokens – a move that bolsters the position of digital currency in sport.
Reuters first reported that the Argentinian footballer’s two-year contract would include tokens in his “welcome package”.
It is not public what the value of the deal is, or what percentage of the deal is made up of tokens, but the club said he received a “large number”.
The tokens, which can be traded on exchanges, are being provided by Socios.com, a platform that has set a number of other clubs up with crypto assets over the last year.
The use and popularity of fan tokens has skyrocketed in that time. The overall value of the fan token market is now $516.6m (£372.98m), according to data. At the same point in 2020, it was worth $56.4m.
Like the rest of the crypto world, the value of tokens is volatile. The total value of the market more than halved in June before…
