Published on: 09/12/2022
World Cup 2022 fan tokens plummet following upsets in Qatar
Since the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, upsets in the tournament have continuously lowered the trading volume and values of World Cup fan tokens.
The tokens are premised on engage-to-earn access models that allow users to participate in in-app games and trivia to receive extra access to the teams they support.
These tokens were created in partnership with official soccer federations and platforms such as Socios and BitCi. Fan tokens are similar to loyalty and reward tokens and donation tiers in that those who spend the most benefit the most.
The biggest pre-play winner was the Argentine Football Association Fan Token (ARG), the first big national soccer team NFT. It works similarly to DAO governance tokens in that holders can vote on future fan events, not the team’s decision or roster.
The popularity of ARG can be linked to rising interest in cryptocurrencies and tokens in the South American country. Since Argentina’s debut last year, federations in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Italy have followed suit to generate fan tokens.
Fan tokens continue to decrease in value
The price of the ARG token reached $8.40 in the days leading up to the World Cup, doubling its value from $4.40 a month earlier. It fell after Saudi Arabia defeated Argentina on November 23 as fans sold their tokens.
A win does not guarantee that the value of a token will rise. Even after Argentina defeated Australia 2 to 1 on December 3, the ARG token was trading at $3.57, struggling to return to the previous week’s highs. Now, despite the team making it to the quarter-finals, the token’s value has dropped to $2.65 as of this writing.
Spain’s token met the same fate. Following an unexpected upset loss to Morocco in Tuesday’s round-of-16 match, it lost 55 percent of its value.
It reached its peak at 80 cents in September after the team defeated Portugal in the 2022/2023 European Cup, but has since fallen to 5 cents.
Portugal’s POR token is also down 6.1 percent over the same time frame, despite beating Switzerland 6-1 on December 6, which suggests that the tokens have become less responsive to the success of associated teams. The token peaked at $6.25 in the days leading up to the tournament and has since dropped to $2.25.
“We see the price of tokens being driven up in anticipation of football events like signings or titles,” Martin Calladine, the author of The Ugly Game, a book about FIFA’s dealings with the 2022 World Cup, said.
“Traders cash them out, prices crash, and fans are left sitting on losses—victims of their enthusiasm for their clubs.”
Other soccer-related NFTs
Visa’s V collection is another soccer-related NFT that has survived price fluctuations caused by game results. The collection, created in collaboration with Crypto.com, has generated $10,900 in traded volume, with over 2,471 minted.
Prices for works featuring teams such as England and Australia range from $10 to $1 million. The NFTs, which are part of the Masters of Movement collection, were created by tracking players’ movements during a short soccer game at FIFA’s Fan Zone, an area designated for World Cup attendees.
These activity maps generate unique images for each game, which are then minted as NFTs. Over 13,000 fans have recently visited Visa’s pop-up in the FIFA Fan Zone. Fans can receive the images as digital files or mint them as NFTs.
Coca-Cola and Crypto.com recently collaborated to create a World Cup-inspired NFT collection. Digital artist Bradley G. Munkowitz, also known as GMUNK, created 10,000 NFTs, which will be available to fans on the Crypto.com NFT platform.
