What are Fan Tokens?
As the name suggests, Fan Tokens are digital assets that holders (fans of a specific sports team, club, or player) own and derive value from.
Traditionally, fans’ interactions with sports teams, players, leagues, and clubs have been passive. Fans purchase tickets and merchandise, and teams or players collect cash, creating an ecosystem with a one-way street.
However, the emergence of decentralized fan tokens inspired by blockchain has changed this situation. How can digital assets help build a closer connection between teams and fans and build a new ecosystem that is beneficial to both stakeholders?
These tokens are limited assets that help create a fan-based rewards system where fans can buy, sell and exchange collectibles, merchandise or meet-and-greets with the team. Fan Tokens do not function as traditional currencies as they are not generally accepted as a medium of exchange for goods and services outside of the specific Fan Token ecosystem. However, within the respective platforms, Fan Tokens can be used to access exclusive content and participate in voting and other similar activities.
While the fan token model was popularized by an app and fan token platform called Socios, it has now been adopted by other blockchain companies. On Socios, fan tokens can be purchased using CHZ, the native token of the Chiliz blockchain. Fan tokens are associated with multiple sports teams, which monetize their fans through rewards. Fan tokens provide holders with a range of opportunities to participate in activities and are assets designed to get fans more involved with a team or player.
What is the difference between fan tokens and NFTs?
One property that sets fan tokens apart from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is fungibility. Fan tokens are fungible, while NFTs, as the name implies, are not.
Fungibility refers to the property that an item can be easily exchanged with another identical item at a specific rate. In fiat currency, one dollar bill is equal to another bill of the same denomination. Fungible assets can be divided into smaller units and lack unique characteristics, which makes them easy for holders to trade. Precious metals, bonds, and stocks are examples of fungible items.
NFTs are unique tokens that cannot be replicated. Examples of NFTs include virtual event tickets, blockchain identities, Metaverse assets, etc. NFTs live on the blockchain like any other crypto token and help claim ownership of unique digital data.
Fungibility is a property that means any fan token can be easily replaced with another fan token. The fungibility of tokens also makes them easy to trade as the tokens become part of a secondary market. However, fan tokens are team-specific and have a limited supply per team.
As the Copa America and the European Championship draw closer, fan tokens have become an ambush target for investors. With the continued release of favorable expectations, we have listed 14 fan tokens worth paying attention to and worth planning ahead.
Chiliz（CHZ）
Chiliz is a leading fan token project that aims to build infrastructure for the sports and entertainment industries. According to the official website, Chiliz has launched 82 fan tokens with famous teams such as Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Barcelona and Manchester United, with more than 150 global sports partners and more than 2 million ecological users.
In recent times, Chiliz has announced a partnership with the Korean Football League to launch a fantasy NFT game, a partnership with RAK Digital Assets Oasis to set up a company in the UAE, and the upcoming launch of DEX Jalaswap with CHZ liquidity provider incentives and destruction. In addition, Chiliz recently announced the 2.0 version of the token economics of its Layer 1 public chain Chiliz Chain. The inflation rate of the token CHZ will decrease year by year from 8.8% until it drops to 1.88% in 14 years and remains unchanged every year thereafter. At the same time, Chiliz Chain will implement EIP-1559, in which the vast majority of accrued Gas will be destroyed. In addition, Chiliz Chain will also achieve more sustainable growth of its own ecosystem and provide higher economic security by providing higher rewards for validators/delegators, providing more opportunities for DeFi construction, and enhancing the practicality of CHZ.
Santos FC Fan Token（SANTOS）
Santos FC Fan Token is a fan token of Santos Football Club based on BSC. Santos Football Club is a well-known Brazilian team. It is the first and only team in football history to score more than 10,000 goals and has more than 3.1 million fans on X. The token SANTOS was launched on Binance Launchpool and currently has the highest market value in the fan token sector.
FC Barcelona Fan Token（BAR）
FC Barcelona Fan Token is a fan token of the Spanish team Barcelona. Holders have the right to participate in various activities and prizes related to the club. Barcelona is the club that has won the most championship trophies in Spain. It has won 5 Champions League titles, 27 La Liga titles, 3 Club World Cup titles and 31 King's Cup titles. It was ranked 15th in Forbes' 2022 list of the world's 50 most valuable sports teams with a business value of US$5 billion. It also ranked 7th in the Deloitte Football Wealth List in 2023 with an annual income of 638.2 million euros.
Paris Saint-Germain Fan Token（PSG）
Paris Saint-Germain Fan Token is the fan token of Paris Saint-Germain Football Club. It recently became the first Chiliz Chain node validator and promised to repurchase PSG fan tokens with 100% of its accrued income. Paris Saint-Germain has won 11 French Ligue 1 titles, 14 French Cup titles and 9 French League Cup titles.
Lazio Fan Token（LAZIO）
Lazio Fan Token is a fan token of Lazio Football Club issued based on BSC and is also a Binance Launchpad project. Lazio has won many honors in history, including 2 Serie A titles, 7 Italian Cup titles and 5 Italian Super Cup titles.
Manchester City Fan Token（CITY）
Manchester City Fan Token is a fan token of Manchester City Football Club, which aims to build a deeper connection with fans. City has won 9 English Premier League titles, 7 FA Cup titles and 9 League Cup titles in history. It is also the second team in English history to win the European Triple Crown and was elected the 2023 Global Football Award for the Best Men's Football Club of the Year.
FC Porto Fan Token（PORTO）
FC Porto Fan Token is a fan token of the famous Portuguese football club Porto issued through Binance Launchpad, which can provide exclusive experiences and privileges for fans and token holders. Porto is the champion of the first two Portuguese Primera Divisions, has swept many league championships, and has won two UEFA Champions League titles. It is worth mentioning that football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo will follow the Portuguese team to the European Cup, and has reached a multi-year partnership with Binance.
Inter Milan Fan Token（INTER）
Inter Milan Fan Token is a fan token of Inter Milan Football Club issued by Chiliz and can be used to purchase tickets, merchandise and other services. Inter Milan Football Club has won 19 top league titles, 9 Italian Cup titles and 7 Italian Super Cup titles in history. It is the first and only "Triple Crown" team in Italian football history, and is known as the "Northern Three Powers" together with AC Milan and Juventus.
Galatasaray Fan Token（GAL）
Galatasaray Fan Token is a fan token of Galatasaray Sports Club on Chiliz. The team has won 15 top league titles, the UEFA Cup and the European Super Cup to date, and holds a world record of 24 consecutive domestic league wins.
Juventus Fan Token (JUV)
Juventus Fan Token is a fan token jointly launched by Juventus Football Club and Chiliz. As the first club in history to achieve the "Grand Slam" of the three major cups, Juventus Football Club has won a total of 36 Italian Serie A titles, the team with the most Serie A titles.
Arsenal Fan Token（AFC）
Arsenal Fan Token is a fan token of Arsenal Football Club, the team is called "The Gunners" and has won 13 top league titles and 14 FA Cup titles, etc.
AC Milan Fan Token（ACM）
AC Milan Fan Token is a fan token issued by Italian football club AC Milan in cooperation with Chiliz. As the team with the most major intercontinental and continental club championships in the world, AC Milan has won 7 European Cup titles, 5 European Super Cup titles, 2 European Cup Winners' Cup titles and 4 Intercontinental Cup and Club World Cup titles.
AS Roma Fan Token（ASR）
AS Roma Fan Token is a fan token of the Roma football club based on Chiliz Chain, which allows fans to have the opportunity to participate in club decision-making and obtain rewards. The club has won 3 Serie A titles in history.
Argentine Football Association Fan Token（ARG）
Argentine Football Association Fan Token is a fan token issued by the Argentine Football Association on Chiliz. Argentina is recognized as the "kingdom of football" and has won 3 World Cup titles and 15 America's Cup titles.
Note that the concept of fan tokens is still new, and will only get stronger as new use cases emerge. Teams launching these tokens have been able to increase fan engagement. As more token holders use them to participate in relevant activities, their value increases.
As a spectator, people enjoy their teams with the sole goal of winning. However, in order to sustain themselves, continue to generate revenue and make money, teams must operate successfully as businesses. Creating fan tokens has huge business potential. As more sports teams realize this, they are now competing to launch their own fan tokens in a bid to capitalize on new opportunities and outperform their competitors.
