Spain Fan Token Tanks Following World Cup Loss

Crypto winter is not the only thing hitting tokens hard right now. There’s also the World Cup.

Soccer tokens took another hit today as the Spain National Football Team Fan Token (SNFT) crashed 42% from $0.09 per coin down to $0.03 after the team’s defeat 3-0 in extra time to Morocco in the FIFA World Cup, according to data from CoinGecko.

Since the beginning of the World Cup, crypto sports bettors have put their money into tokens named after their favorite team. Some tokens, like the Argentine Football Association Fan Token (ARG), act similarly to DAO governance tokens, giving owners the right to vote on future fan events but not on the team’s direction or roster.

Even though most tokens can fluctuate along with the volatility of the crypto market, sports fan tokens are all about the game.

After Saudi Arabia defeated Argentina on November 23, 2022, the price of the ARG token dropped as fans sold off their tokens. According to Coingecko, at the start of the World Cup on November 20, 2022, the Argentina team fan token traded at $8.10 per coin, but after the loss three days later, $5.35 and has remained in freefall ever since.

But even a win doesn’t guarantee a token will increase in value. On December 3, 2022, Argentina defeated Australia 2 to 1. At the time, the value of the ARG token was trading at $3.57, failing to return to the previous week’s highs.

Team tokens are not just for the World Cup. In April, digital asset platform Socio inked a deal to create fan tokens for thirteen NFL teams, including the Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The following month, Socio announced a deal with Major League Soccer to create fan tokens for twenty-six teams.

“The best way to look at these deals, as anything, is as a signal that the league is comfortable and interested in us, and was in a good enough place after our discussions,” Max Rabinovitch, chief strategy officer at Socios and parent company Chiliz, previously told Decrypt. “Where they essentially let us have the privilege of signing with as many teams as we did.”