Sports fans can trade ‘fractional NFTs’ based on real-life sports statistics

A new decentralized exchange for fantasy stocks allows users to trade fractional NFTs with values that are influenced by real-world events — gamifying DeFi while bringing it into the thriving non-fungible tokens market.

TradeStars is a fantasy sports stocks trading game on top of the Ethereum and Matic Layer 2 blockchains. The company is tokenizing the real-life performance statistics of some of the world’s most popular athletes through a unique implementation of Fractionable NFTs — a marked change from other platforms that focus on creating collectibles of players themselves.

Fractional NFT markets can be compared to the liquidity pools seen on conventional decentralized exchanges. The supply for each market is managed by a bonding curve (an automated market making algorithm) that sets the price based on supply and demand, and rewards in the form of TSX (the platform’s main governance token) are based on statistics tracking the athlete's real-life performance.

By using their sporting knowledge, and relying on their favorite real-life statistics, fans can speculate on short or long-term positions, and compete against each other in a unique social experience for a trading platform.

The platform has started supporting cricket and is expected to be adding soccer and eSports NFT markets soon.

Pushing blockchain technology forward

One of the company’s biggest priorities is offering a user-friendly interface that delivers a frictionless experience for players and allows anyone — not only the crypto community — to use the platform.

To fulfill this mission, TradeStars removed the need for users to have an external wallet in order to use the platform, and transactions executed on it are almost instant and gasless, too.

Scalability has been achieved through the use of Matic Layer 2, which enables higher levels of throughput than what the Ethereum blockchain can currently provide. New users can also make deposits in a multitude of cryptocurrencies — including any ERC-20 token — and a fiat on-ramp is also available.

To appeal to sports fans around the world, TradeStars is available in eight languages, including English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic. Gamers only need a web browser to start playing the game too, with Chrome, Safari and Edge all supported.

A thriving industry

Figures cited by TradeStars show that the NFT market has achieved sales volumes of above $2 million in every week of October, with estimated CAGR of about 50% for 2020. Christian Hentschel, the platform’s founder and CTO, wrote in a recent blog post: “NFTs are being touted as the future of the art and collectible industry, the gaming industry, and even the real estate sector in some cases.”

As well as helping this new asset class achieve its full potential, TradeStars says it is eager to tap into the thriving sports gaming industry, which amassed global revenues of $85 billion in 2019. The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the relationship many fans have with the games they love — and given how most live sporting events are now taking place behind closed doors, fans are now looking for new sources of engagement.

“TradeStars provides a unique opportunity to introduce billions of sports fans all across the globe to the world of blockchain and NFTs, creating a thriving and flourishing ecosystem for trading fantasy stocks,” Hentschel added.

Launched in January 2020, TradeStars has now amassed more than 45,000 users. By the third quarter of 2021, it has the ambitious target of attracting one million users.