The former Barcelona player also recently unveiled a collectible non-fungible token (NFT).
Lionel Messi received a huge amount of tokens from crypto fans as part of his two-year contract with Paris St Germain (PSG), reported Reuters.
PSG also confirmed that the 34-year-old received the chips as part of a “welcome package” on its website, noting :
“In the world premiere for such an important signing, Leo Messi received a large number of ‘$ PSG Fan Tokens'”.
This news follows the quick transfer of the Argentine football star to the French club, a few days after leaving FC Barcelona. The club’s statement also says that cryptos tokens will connect Messi to millions of fans around the world.
People who hold fan tokens can participate in club activities, such as choosing the goal of the season or voting for the player of the year. But as tokens have functional similarities with other cryptocurrencies, they are attracting more and more investors eager to capitalize on their price movements.
For example, one investor noted that on August 9, as developments continued to tie Messi to PSG, the price of the club’s supporter token jumped 25% to more than $ 50 per token.
That’s $PSG crypto coin, more than doubled since Messi was linked to the club!!! pic.twitter.com/MZmJOJpPvd
– Horcrux (@BlaugranaFC26) August 9, 2021
According to data from CoinGecko, the token has increased by more than 81% in the last seven days. Most of the rise occurred just before the deal was officially announced, with PSG/USD reaching a 7-day peak of $ 58.04, just short of its all-time high of $ 58.79 recorded on April 27, 2021.
At the time of writing, the Paris Saint-Germain token has fallen about 3 % in the last 24 hours to trade around $41.07. Although the current price is about 30% off the April peak, it is currently trading at over 1,050% since its all-time low of $ 3.57 recorded on July 1, 2020.
The 333rd ranked crypto token saw more than $ 317 million in daily volume, with market capitalization rising to $ 118 million, as seen on CoinGecko.
