By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 22nd, 2024
What’s interesting is that it isn’t only the Argentina fan token that dropped in value. Brazil’s team fan token fell by about 10%. Similarly, the Spain National Fan Token fell by 7%.
The Argentina Fan Token (ARG) has suffered a loss in value after tournament favorites Argentina lost their first World Cup game to Saudi Arabia.
In an unexpected turnaround, Saudi Arabia came from behind to end Argentina’s 36-game unbeaten run and deliver a World Cup shocker. Following the defeat, ARG plummeted from about $7.20 at the start of the match to $4.96, according to data from CoinGecko. While it has since recovered and is trading at $5.31 at the time of writing, it’s still way off its peak value of $9.19, which it reached about five days ago.
Created by Chiliz in partnership with the Argentine Football Association, the ARG token is an ERC-20 token, available for purchase on the Socios app. It is also available on several other exchanges, including OKX and Gate.io.
Chiliz explains that the tokens give their owners voting rights in fan decisions and access to an inner circle of fans. “The more tokens a fan holds, and the more they vote, the higher the clout rating of that fan.” Holders also move through different reward levels until they receive any available VIP offers.
Not Just the Argentina Fan Token
The Argentina Fan token is just one of many. Many clubs and national teams have partnered with Bitci and Chiliz to create fan tokens, generating millions of dollars in the process. Many of these national team tokens saw their prices soar in the days leading to the World Cup, revealing cup sentiments.
After Tuesday’s loss, what’s interesting is that it isn’t just the Argentina fan token that dropped in value. Brazil’s team fan token fell by about 10% to $0.7386 on Tuesday. Similarly, the Spain National Fan Token fell by 7% to $0.7386.
There are speculations the activity around fan tokens suggests that fans are using them to bet on matches indirectly. What makes this even more likely is that after Saudi’s win, an Ethereum NFT collection called The Saudis saw an uptick in sales even though it has no relationship with the Saudi team.
One clear thing is that crypto tokens and NFTs named after real entities often see spikes or dips in prices after major events surrounding those entities. For example, during Johnny Depp’s trial with Amber Heard, his NFTs surged. They have since tanked and returned to the pre-trial levels.