In a growing trend, football teams around the world are looking to make millions of dollars through the sale of crypto “fan tokens”. A recent research notes that, in Europe alone, fans have spent some $350 million USD on these virtual files related to their beloved football clubs.
Although these tokens have allowed fans to feel closer to their clubs, the criticism has not been long in coming; some specialists mention that the possession of these files does not represent any benefit for their owners or only include minimal advantages, not to mention that clubs could offer poor or no security measures.
So far 24 clubs in the five major European leagues have launched or are about to launch their fan tokens, including eight teams in the Premier League. These tokens are sold as a conventional cryptocurrency, and their value could increase or decrease based on supply and demand, similar to other virtual assets.
Some clubs also sell packages of non-fungible tokens (NFT) through a subscription to a firm called Socios, which organizes the initial sale and subsequent trading of virtual currencies, although other companies such as Binance and Bitci offer similar packages.
Everything seems relatively simple, although things start to get complicated when speculation comes in. An analysis by the specialized firm Protos reports that some buyers are exchanging their fan tokens speculatively to generate quick profits, however, the value of most fan tokens has decreased considerably since their initial sale.
The report adds that small cryptocurrencies, such as fan tokens, are even more volatile than usual due to the small number of interested users, something that speculators know and do not hesitate to use to their advantage, taking advantage of users less familiar with these concepts.
Another factor that alters the prices of fan tokens is that clubs safeguard most of these virtual assets; According to Protos, clubs control up to 80% of their fan tokens, in an attempt to maintain some balance in the value of the token, limiting the market and directly favoring speculators. As if that wasn’t enough, the release of more tokens could cause their value to collapse, making it difficult for clubs to find the desired balance.
Speculative practices are almost a scam, so users should try to have all the necessary information before investing in this virtual asset class. To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
