Blockchain-based sports platform Chiliz (CHZ) is leading a boom in one sector of the altcoin world which is putting Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) to shame. According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, CHZ is consolidating on March 17 after month-to-date gains which topped 1,600%. Chiliz up 1,650% in 2 weeks With altcoins firmly back in the spotlight as Bitcoin itself is nearing all-time highs, anticipation is building that the coming months will produce an “altseason” like no other. This month, however, one group of tokens is already spawning gains which far outpace the rest. Sports tokens, including Chiliz and …

The Oakland Athletics, the San Francisco East Bay ballclub at the heart of the Academy Award-nominated 2011 movie Moneyball, is greeting the new season with a Bitcoin-friendly offer for its fans. Until April 1, the club is offering a full season, six-person suite for the home season at the price of 1 Bitcoin (BTC), currently valued at $57,653. That works out — for the time being — to be a slight discount, given that the fiat currency price for a suite is fixed at $64,800. Bitcoin's unprecedented price rise since December 2020 has opened up the possibility for the A's …

NFL star Rob Gronkowski’s NFT drop has generated more than $1.8 million in primary sales on NFT market OpenSea. The "Rob Gronkowski Championship Series NFT Collection" includes five different tokenized cards depicting in-game action shots of the player during championship-winning games. The championship series consists of five unique collectibles, including a single one-of-a-kind token and four NFTs of which 87 copies each were minted and auctioned from Thursday until Saturday. The auction’s terms notably stipulated that any bids made in the last 10 minutes extended each auction by another 10 minutes. The one-of-one “GRONK Career Highlight Refractor Card” is a …

According to a report yesterday from the Miami Herald, cryptocurrency exchange FTX is preparing to finalize a deal to sponsor the home of National Basketball Association team the Miami Heat — a move that will grant the exchange exclusive naming rights for the 19,600 arena. “Miami-Dade County is getting closer to signing a cryptocurrency company to replace American Airlines as the naming-rights sponsor of the Miami Heat’s downtown arena, according to several sources — a deal that would deliver the NBA its first venue tied to bitcoin and other electronic currencies,” reads the report. The Herald also noted that “Internet …

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange and former Olympian rowers, will be sponsoring the 2021 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race. In an announcement from Gemini on Tuesday, the Winklevoss twins said the crypto exchange would be the principal sponsor of this year’s boat race between Oxford University and Cambridge University — an event going back to 1829. In addition, Gemini will be funding a 75,000 euro ($89,256) scholarship for “young people with limited access to rowing.” Both brothers rowed at Harvard University for four years while majoring in economics, later competing at the 2007 Pan American Games and …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) are two of the hottest concepts in the crypto sector, and each is altering the way projects and companies interact with the public on a wide scale. One project that is looking to apply these concepts into a framework for sports fan engagement is Chiliz, a blockchain platform created by the Socios fan engagement platform. The project is designed to allow fans to purchase branded Fan Tokens that let them influence their teams through the popular vote. According to the project website, all Fan Tokens are minted on the Chiliz blockchain with on-platform …

Non-fungible token-focused investment firm Polyient Games is launching a new online tournament to introduce mainstream gamers to the crypto space. In an announcement today, Polyient Games said it would be partnering with esports tournament platform Community Gaming for a $100,000 series featuring games using non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The esports games will reportedly “function as a method of introducing mainstream gamers to the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain assets” by allowing players to acquire digital collectibles and use NFTs as in-game items. "The marriage between decentralized technology and gaming will be one of the most significant themes of the coming …

Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world’s leading mixed martial arts, or MMA, organization, has announced an exclusive partnership with Stake.com — a leading crypto-powered online casinos and sportsbook. The partnership announced on March 7, will see Stake become UFC’s “First Official Betting Partner” in Asia and Latin America. However, the deal will exclude UFC’s key market in Brazil. The two firms began working together on March 3 — with Stake's customers receiving access to unique digital content surrounding the promotional “fight week” for UFC’s March 6 pay-per-view. An announcement states the company's will also developer exclusive promotions, VIP experiences, and social …

After only three days accepting Dogecoin (DOGE) as a form of payment, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is predicting the price of the token will eventually hit $1. In a Saturday tweet, Cuban said customers had used more than 20,000 Dogecoin — roughly $1,018 at the time of publication — in transactions for the Dallas Mavericks, claiming the franchise was now “the largest Dogecoin merchant in the world." The billionaire predicted that if basketball fans were to purchase 6,556,000,000 DOGE worth of Mavericks merchandise, the price of the token would “definitely hit $1.” The @dallasmavs have done more than 20,000 …

Strong hands view a correction in an uptrend as a buying opportunity and data from CryptoQuant shows that Bitcoin (BTC) whales have been buying near $48,000. This activity can be seen in the large Coinbase outflows, most of which went to custody wallets and this suggests that the institutional investors believe the Bitcoin rally has room to run. Even Kraken CEO Jesse Powell is ultra bullish on Bitcoin. In a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Powell said that Bitcoin could reach $1 million over the next ten years if the digital asset overtakes gold as a store of value. While …

Basketball legend Magic Johnson has a future with the bulls. No, he's not returning to play for the NBA, but joining a major sports licensing company that looks favorably at the rise of the non-fungible token market. In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box today, Michael Rubin, executive chairman of sports merchandise company Fanatics, said the digital and physical collectible market was "exploding" due in part to many spending more time at home last year. Johnson just joined Fanatics’ board as an independent director and seemed to shared Rubin's optimism. “It’s almost a frenzy happening right now,” said Rubin. “I …

Major blockchain sports venture Chiliz is planning a $50 million expansion into the United States, CEO Alexandre Dreyfus announced Tuesday. Dreyfus told Cointelegraph that the firm is setting up an office in New York and will start working with local leagues and sports franchises. New York is the “headquarters for the sports industry in the U.S,” Dreyfus said, stressing that the new office will be critical for Chiliz's global expansion. In a Reuters interview, Dreyfus said that the company is preparing to launch fan tokens with franchises from the five major U.S. sports leagues. Chiliz has generated millions of dollars …