Stars like Lionel Messi, Ousmane Dembele, Luiz Suarez and Antoine Greizmann are set to become the poster boys of crypto as part of a marketing deal which sees the Catalan giants partnering with blockchain start-up Chiliz.
The Barca Fan Token (BAR) has been designed to give voting rights and access to exclusive merchandise to the side’s army of global fans.
Barcelona boasts one of football’s biggest fanbases with an estimated 300 million followers worldwide.
It is believed BAR will be launched in April at an opening price of €2 a token, with a total supply of 40 million tokens. It will initially be available for purchase via the Chiliz and Socios apps.
Together with a marketing campaign spearheaded by 32-year-old club captain Messi – idolised by Barcelona and Argentina fans – the possibility of marketing cryptocurrency to the masses is a mouth-watering prospect that has already seen dozens of digital exchanges lining up to work with the Camp Nou-based outfit.
According to FCB’s head of commercial activity – Josep Pont – the move is designed to bring the worldwide fanbase closer to Barcelona.
“This agreement will give us the chance to set up innovative marketing and partnership activations with a clear focus on the digital realm to take the club closer to our fans around the world,” he said.
“This agreement also forms part of FC Barcelona’s goal to become associated with leading brands that can help us consolidate our new commercial and digital strategy, with the development of new streams for the generation of resources helping to make us a benchmark both on and off the field.”
Investors in the BAR token will also be given voting rights on certain ‘low level’ decisions facing the club, similar to the recent launch of the JUV token at Italian club Juventus.
Barca fans throughout the world will be rewarded for every action taken on Socios.com, climbing up leaderboards and receiving reward points which can be exchanged for exclusive merchandise and experiences.
Alexandre Drefyus, CEO & Founder of Socios.com and Chiliz, said involving Barcelona in cryptocurrency was helping to promote use cases of crypto and the blockchain technology underpinning it.
“We are very excited to welcome FC Barcelona to Socios.com, and even more excited to start engaging with their massive fan base around the world,” he said.
“Adding FC Barcelona fans to the Socios.com global community takes us one step closer to our goal of mainstream adoption of blockchain.
“Every time a fan downloads the app, we are furthering education, and every time a fan buys a Fan Tokens, we are strengthening the use cases of this innovative technology.”
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