Major Turkish sports club Fenerbahçe issues fan token on Ethereum

August 10, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

Crypto presents an opportunity to create a significant revenue stream for sports clubs around the world, Fenerbahçe S.K. President Ali Koç said.

Fenerbahçe S.K., one of the three biggest sports clubs in Turkey, issued its own fan token on the Ethereum blockchain through a new partnership with the local crypto exchange Paribu. The initial presale of 500,000 unlocked tokens was completed on Aug. 9, netting the club 15 million lira ($1.75 million) in 30 seconds.

The club announced that the Fenerbahçe Token would have a maximum supply of 190,700,000 tokens in reference to 1907, the year Fenerbahçe was established. According to the project’s white paper, a total of 117 million treasure tokens would be created on smart contracts over the next 25 years on a yearly basis.

Fenerbahçe also included a roadmap for the token burn that would be triggered by the club’s achievements in soccer, basketball or volleyball. According to the white paper, there will be token burns in the event of a victory, championship or achievement in Europe.

Noting the dismal state of soccer amid the coronavirus pandemic, Fenerbahçe president Ali Koç said that the sports industry has to seek new revenue streams. He stated that being active in the crypto assets business is an important item in the club’s agenda.

Koç explained that Fenerbahçe met with 12 companies, both local and international, before issuing a fan token. After evaluating several criteria like the potential of a token listing, user base and technical infrastructure, the club picked Paribu as the technology partner for Fenerbahçe Token.

Speaking about the deal between two parties, Ali Koç said, “It’s not a sponsorship deal. It’s a 25-year-long business partnership.”

Paribu CEO Yasin Oral said that, due to Fenerbahçe Token being issued as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, it would be possible to list it on global platforms in the future.

Fenerbahçe is a rather late addition to the fan token hype in Turkey. Several sports clubs in the country have already issued fan tokens. More recently, the Turkish Union of Clubs, an association of clubs playing in Turkey’s primary soccer league Süper Lig, has partnered with Socios.com to explore digital revenue models.

Digital asset platform Zipmex partners with Visa in Asia Pacific

August 6, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Asia

Visa is continuing to extend its integration with regulated crypto companies worldwide.

Asia-Pacific crypto-fiat trading platform Zipmex has forged a strategic partnership with Visa in a bid to improve the convenience of its payment programs and products.

The platform's payment network ZipSend, designed to enable users to spend their crypto, will be integrated into Visa’s worldwide network of 70 million merchants. Following the partnership, Zipmex aims to release a Visa-branded payment card later this year.

Zipmex, which has compliant operations in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia, currently has a user base of over 200,000 and has reported over $1 billion in gross transaction volume since its launch in late 2019. The company has noted that any future payment product, such as a card, will still need to get the green light from the regulatory authorities in the relevant jurisdictions.

Zipmex CEO Marcus Lim has said that the platform’s bid to become a crypto payment card issuer has placed it in a position “to provide support and guidance to help regulators pass effective digital asset legislation. This has been one of the more fulfilling aspects of this project.”

As reported, crypto exchange and payment service provider Crypto.com has also inked a global partnership with Visa and has rolled out its card in multiple regions, including Asia-Pacific. In July, Visa announced that its crypto-enabled cards had processed more than $1 billion in total spending during the first half of 2021 alone.

With central bank digital currencies and private sector stablecoins drawing ever more attention from a legal and geopolitical perspective, both Visa and its rival Mastercard have been vying to ensure their services remain at the center of the latest developments in the digital asset space.

Visa’s CEO has this year argued that stablecoins’ blockchains could be thought of as payment rails similar to RPT or ACH networks. Mastercard has for its part announced recent partnerships with Circle, Paxos, Evolve Bank & Trust and others on a joint project to enable banks and crypto firms to roll out crypto cards that can be used anywhere that Mastercard is accepted.

The company has also recently announced a new startup engagement program as part of Mastercard Start Path to support fintechs and companies working with digital assets, crypto and blockchain technology.

On the consumer front, Coinbase announced this week that users with a Visa or Mastercard debit card linked to Apple Pay can now purchase crypto assets on its platform, with Google Pay integration to follow.

State Street-backed Securrency partners with GK8 for custody and institutional blockchain infrastructure

August 4, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

“Banks and other financial institutions are waking up to the fact that blockchain is more than crypto, and that any financial instruments can be tokenized,” says Lior Lamesh, CEO and co-founder of GK8.

GK8, a cybersecurity and digital asset custodian, has partnered with fintech company Securrency to provide banking clients with institutional-grade blockchain solutions.

The partnership centers around GK8’s enterprise-grade custody solutions, which will be made available to Securrency’s clients as the fintech company continues to build its tokenization infrastructure. Securrency’s main focus is tokenizing real-world assets such as stocks, commodities and other securities.

Dan Doney, co-founder and CEO of Securrency, described GK8 as the “most secure custodial solution in the market,” adding:

“GK8’s design provides all-around protection and functionality for enterprise-grade clients. By adding the GK8 custodial solution to our network, we can now make sure that our customers’ assets are protected to the highest standards.”

Securrency is backed by State Street, U.S. Bank, WisdomTree and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, suggesting that institutional players are looking at security tokenization more closely. Tokenization refers to the process of turning things into digital assets through blockchain technology. In finance, asset tokenization is said to have major implications for traditional institutions. As Cointelegraph’s Expert Take series explained:

“Tokenization implies that account management and claims on assets are driven by cryptographic keys, as opposed to account management and asset management by a system operator called a bank. Though tokenization is more than just account management and claims to an asset, it enables divisibility, fungibility and disintermediated business functions, such as asset transfer.”

Major cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and FTX already offer tokenized security offerings. On these platforms, tokenized shares of Apple, Tesla and GameStop log more than $1 million in daily volumes.

The NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers to Collaborate With Blockchain Firm Socios.com

July 27, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team joins fan token platform Socios

July 26, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Basketball

Socios, the blockchain-based platform which has tokenized many sports franchises worldwide, has partnered with the National Basketball Association’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

In a Monday announcement from blockchain-based sports platform Chiliz, Socios said its logo will be prominently featured on Cavaliers’ team jerseys for the upcoming season, scheduled to begin later this year. The platform also said it was currently in the review and development phase for “fan engagement elements” for the team, purportedly referring to tokens or digital collectibles.

“This is the start of an exciting partnership that we believe can eventually lead to greatly enhanced fan engagement for fans of the Cavaliers around the world,” said Socios and Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus. “Chiliz.com is fast developing into a global fan engagement powerhouse, where passive fans are being transitioned into real players in the day-to-day activities of their favourite teams.”

Many basketball franchises have already inked partnership deals with Socios. Earlier this month the firm announced a similar arrangement for branding and a digital presence with the Boston Celtics basketball team, and the Philadelphia 76ers joined the fan token platform in June. The partnerships with U.S.-based sports teams is part of Socios’ expansion into North America — where it plans to open a regional office in the near future.

The Socios announcement comes as basketball teams in Canada and the United States have moved seemingly in an effort to bring sports deeper into the crypto space. The Portland Trail Blazers will reportedly have crypto rewards company StormX’s logo on its team jerseys for the next five years, beginning with the upcoming season. The Canadian Elite Basketball League also announced last month it would be allowing players from its seven teams to accept a portion of their salaries in Bitcoin (BTC) starting next week.

Bank of Korea selects Kakao’s blockchain arm for digital won tests

July 20, 2021 Coin Telegraph

CBDC

ConsenSys, a major Ethereum software company, will contribute its technology to South Korean CBDC simulations led by Ground X.

The central bank of South Korea has chosen a blockchain subsidiary of local internet giant Kakao as a technology provider for its digital currency pilots.

Kakao’s Ground X had won the Bank of Korea’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) tender, becoming the principal technology supplier for blockchain-based digital won simulations, local news agency Korea JoongAng Daily reported Tuesday.

The central bank announced that Ground X will participate in the South Korean CBDC project in cooperation with United States-based blockchain company ConsenSys as well as other Kakao affiliates like KakaoBank and Kakao Pay.

Focused on infrastructure and decentralized applications for the Ethereum blockchain, ConsenSys will contribute to the CBDC project by applying in-house solutions like ConsenSys Quorum and ConsenSys Codefi, the firm announced on Twitter.

Today, the Bank of Korea chose GroundX for their digital currency project.

As the tech partner of GroundX, the blockchain subsidiary of Kakao, we are thrilled to get to work using our leading CBDC tech stack of @ConsenSysQuorum and @ConsenSysCodefi https://t.co/4hQohMRJj3
— ConsenSys (@Consensys) July 20, 2021

BoK opened a bidding process for firms interested in conducting a blockchain-enabled CBDC simulation project. According to Korea JoongAng Daily, the first tests are likely to kick off next month.

Launched by Kakao in 2018, Ground X is known for operating its own blockchain platform called Klaytn. ConsenSys has already been collaborating with Ground X on developing a private platform for issuing a South Korean CBDC.

The initiative aims to test the CBDC in a virtual simulation environment based on distributed ledger technology, exploring potential use cases related to CBDC issuance, redemption, electronic payments and settlement, as well as potential integrations related to purchases of digital artworks and copyrights. The central bank initially announced the country’s plans to test the distribution of a digital won in February 2021.

Arsenal FC to launch AFC Fan Token on Socios

July 19, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Socios will become the digital meeting place for “Gooners,” the term used since the 1980s to describe Arsenal fans.

English Premier League stalwart Arsenal F.C. is launching a new fan token in partnership with Socios, giving its supporters the ability to influence club decisions and access team-related content.

The partnership makes Socios the main digital meeting place for Arsenal’s fanbase, according to a Monday announcement from Chiliz, the exclusive cryptocurrency of the Socios platform.

By holding AFC Fan Tokens, Arsenal fans will have “countless engagement opportunities” with the club, Chiliz said, including “the chance to influence the club in a series of interactive polls across a variety of decisions every season.”

No timetable was given for the launch of AFC Token, though Chiliz indicated it would become available soon. Fans who are currently signed up for My Arsenal Rewards, a fan-centric rewards program, have the option to receive a free AFC Fan Token.

“We are excited to launch this partnership with Socios.com that will bring our huge global fan base even closer to the club,” said Peter Silverstone, commercial director at Arsenal. “Socios.com are leading the way in blockchain in the sports industry, as we have seen from their relationships with other leading European clubs.”

Chiliz has become a popular engagement platform for professional sports teams and leagues. In May of this year, three Formula 1 racing teams announced exclusive fan tokens on the Chiliz blockchain. During the same month, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, better known as UFC, announced it would launch its own blockchain-based fan token.

As Cointelegraph reported, Chiliz is expanding its operations in the United States to pursue more fan-token engagement opportunities. CEO Alexandre Dreyfus told Cointelegraph in March that the organization’s forthcoming New York office will be a launch pad for engagement with local leagues and sporting franchises.

Dapp for Diem blockchain partners with Polkadot infrastructure provider

July 16, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Business

Pontem founder Boris Povod said the partnership was aimed at improving Polkadot’s current node infrastructure, with Pinknode providing “reliable and secure API endpoints.”

The decentralized application aiming to connect Facebook’s Diem blockchain with public networks is partnering with node infrastructure provider Pinknode.

In a Friday announcement, the Pontem Network said it would be working with Pinknode to provide node infrastructure through the Polkadot ecosystem. The network is aimed at allowing developers to use a Polkadot parachain as a testing ground for their ideas before submitting them to the Diem blockchain.

According to Pontem founder Boris Povod, the partnership will help improve Polkadot’s current infrastructure as Pinknode provides “reliable and secure API endpoints.” The network added that Pinknode’s code would allow Polkadot developers to connect their dApps through Kusama, while Pontem and Pinknodes teams could provide "critical infrastructure for Web 3.0 purposes."

Last month, Pontem raised $4.5 million in seed investments for the project to allow interoperable features developed in its ecosystem to be accessible through the Diem blockchain. The project also recently hired new staff, including former BlockFi employee Alejo Pinto for the role of chief growth officer.

Many reports have stated that the Facebook-backed project is planning to launch its Diem stablecoin pilot program sometime in 2021. The project was first introduced by Facebook in 2019 as Libra, but quickly faced backlash from international regulators. It was rebranded to Diem the following year.

Gaming giant Ubisoft joins Aleph.im as core channel node operator

July 8, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain Game

As Cointelegraph previously reported, Aleph.im was the only blockchain company to participate in Ubisoft's sixth annual Entrepreneurs Lab that began in May.

French video game developer Ubisoft is furthering its blockchain ambitions by joining the Aleph.im network in the capacity of channel node operator, setting the stage for further collaboration with the distributed cloud platform.

As a core channel node operator, Ubisoft is contributing to aleph.im through staking, validating and managing the decentralized network. While all nodes are able to join the network, their status as core channel node activates only after they’ve staked 500,000 ALEPH tokens.

Jonathan Schemoul, the founder and CEO of aleph.im, said his company’s “primary mission is to make decentralized cloud services a reality.”

“At Ubisoft, we believe that Blockchain holds a key to the future of the videogame industry, bringing new possibilities for players and developers alike,” said Didier Genevois, a blockchain technology developer at Ubisoft. He added:

“Beyond NFTs themselves, the decentralized storage of their metadata appears to us as a determining factor in fulfilling the whole promise of true ownership. In this perspective, the exploration of the services offered by the Aleph.im decentralized network is particularly promising.”

Ubisoft’s exposure to the aleph.im network likely grew after the blockchain network participated in its Entrepreneurs Lab alongside ten other tech startups.

Ubisoft has made it abundantly clear that it is pursuing broader blockchain initiatives. In June 2020, the company launched blockchain-based collectibles to raise funds for the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. In the same year, Ubisoft announced it had become a validator node Tezos.

The Boston Celtics Announce Partnership With Blockchain Company Socios.com

July 7, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Partnership

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