Chiliz (CHZ), a major sports-focused digital currency, is getting its first listing on a Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange. Mercado Bitcoin, the largest crypto trading platform in Brazil, will soon roll out Chiliz trading against the local currency, Brazilian real (BRL). Chiliz token is the first utility token listed on Mercado Bitcoin As officially announced on July 13, Mercado Bitcoin users are already able to make Chiliz deposits with BRL. Trading will be launched on July 14. Chiliz token is the seventh digital currency supported on Mercado Bitcoin exchange. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the platform features major cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC), …

Spanish soccer giant FC Barcelona has sold out its first FC Barcelona Fan Tokens (BAR), which were sold via sports-focused token platforms Chiliz.net and Socios.com. The $1.3 million sale ran its course in less than two hours. At its peak it sold $777,000 of tokens in less than 2 minutes. Chiliz and Socios CEO Alexandre Dreyfus announced the news in a June 22 tweet. Chiliz and Socios saw a five-fold increase in demand during the sale Dreyfus noted that the token sale saw more than 4,000 fans from 106 countries participate. He told us that the top buyers came from …

Over the last two years, the cryptocurrency industry has gone through a paradigm shift, as developers, projects and users have begun applying blockchain technologies to ever more innovative and intriguing use cases. Among these, the tokenization of entertainers, sports stars and big personalities stands out as one of the most unusual recent trends because traditional sports, entertainment and modern technologies like blockchain seem like an unlikely pairing. However, the tokenization of sports contracts, intellectual property in sports, stars and players is actually the logical next step in the evolution of blockchain use cases. What is tokenization exactly? In a sense, …

London-based financial technology startup Plutus is offering rewards through its debit card when users shop Nike’s online store. Doing so unlocks up to 3% in crypto and 9% cash rewards for those purchases. Rewards are available for British pounds and euros only In order to receive the rewards, customers must use the Plutus Visa Card while shopping online. As Plutus currently operates within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, the service is now available for purchase in euros and the British pound, a spokesperson from the firm told Cointelegraph. The rewards are generated in Plutus’s native token, Pluton …

The latest development in pro basketballer Spencer Dinwiddie’s efforts to tokenize his NBA contract has seen the star launch a Gofundme campaign in an attempt to raise the cash equivalent of the 2,625.8 Bitcoins (BTC) — worth roughly $24.6M at time of writing. Dinwiddie launched the campaign, oddly titled ‘Dinwiddie X BTC X NBA’, to purportedly affirm his “commitment to [his] previous tweets” that offered his fans the opportunity to choose which NBA team he would go to in exchange for the value of his contract in Bitcoin. Dinwiddie abandons crypto campaign, wants cash instead However, the new campaign is …

American mixed martial artist and former UFC lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez, has bought one Bitcoin (BTC). In a tweet, May 7, he claimed he “can’t sit on the sidelines any longer.” Peer pressure works Alvarez credits fellow former MMA champion and renowned Bitcoin bull, Ben Askren, for convincing him to take the plunge, saying: “You got me !!! I still have no clue what it’s all about but I’m in ... you might have to coach me they this.” Askren is such a big BTC fan that he has even changed his Twitter handle in honor of the upcoming Bitcoin …

Ethereum-based sports tokenization platform Chiliz has partnered with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to allow fans to use CHZ tokens for experiences. According to a May 7 announcement from Chiliz (CHZ), the platform plans to make their blockchain-based app Socios available to UFC fans. Using Chiliz’s signature CHZ coin, fans can exchange tokens on the platform for tickets to UFC events, experiences, and related rewards. Image courtesy of Chiliz Speaking to Cointelegraph, Chiliz CEO Alex Dreyfus said the partnership wasn’t strictly about buying tickets, but giving fans a voice: “The idea is that (before the pandemic) 99.9% of sports fans, …

Blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare has signed a licensing agreement with Real Betis — the Andalusian soccer team that drew the French star player Nabil Fekir to La Liga last summer. Fekir will be just one of the Real Betis-licensed digital collectible player cards issued by Sorare on the Ethereum blockchain. For each player and each soccer season, Sorare issues one “unique” player card, 10 “super rare” player cards, and 100 “rare” player cards. These can then be traded on secondary markets or used in Sorare’s game. One of these unique player cards — for Belgian goalie Hendrik Van Crombrugge …

Okung Ventures, the venture startup founded by NFL star Russell Okung, is backing Bitcoin (BTC) loyalty outfit Fold to help crypto holders earn BTC as well as spend it. The Carolina Panthers player invested in, and has been promoting Fold, an app which offers users the ability to spend Bitcoin or fiat currency at major retailers such as Amazon, Uber and Starbucks. Similar to cashback rewards from major credit cards: the more you spend, the more Bitcoin rewards you earn. Okung told Forbes he believes “finding more ways to EARN bitcoin is just as important as getting more people interested …

Despite being over a decade old, Bitcoin (BTC) is still not particularly easy to understand. Even major BTC bulls like Tim Draper have admitted that Bitcoin still lacks ease of use for mainstream adoption. In the same vein, two key figures in the community held an informal Twitter debate over Bitcoin’s complexity today. Debate intro: Cuban might change his mind about Bitcoin if it gets so easy that “grandma can use it” Mark Cuban, one of the most well-known Bitcoin sceptics, prefers to own bananas than invest in bitcoins. Cuban previously criticized Bitcoin’s complexity in an interview with Anthony “Pomp” …

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are not new to the sports industry. Some NBA teams began accepting BTC as payment for tickets as early as 2014. Since then, the relationship between sports and crypto has been rapidly evolving. Today, a firm that claims to be the world’s first ever crypto exchange for sport tokens has rolled out trading for its first sports-focused coin. Chiliz.net, a Singapore-based sports blockchain venture and crypto exchange, has listed Juventus Fan Token (JUV), a blockchain token released by Italian professional soccer club, Juventus, in collaboration with sport-focused token platform Socios.com. Chiliz CEO says that Chiliz token …

Chiliz has announced that it has begun working on a blockchain-based solution to allow soccer fans to gradually return to the stadiums — provided that they hold a government-issued “immunity pass.” According to its blog post dated April 13, the proposed Socios Pass could be a solution to mitigate some of the damage to the sports industry caused by the novel Coronavirus pandemic. While some countries in Europe, including Italy, are already drafting plans for an eventual return to normalcy, the general understanding is that soccer events will be held behind closed doors for the foreseeable future. Indeed, one football …