Turkey’s crypto and blockchain ecosystem welcomed 2020 with big ambitions and a strong track record from 2019, which was its best year ever in terms of adoption. Following the release of Statista’s “Global Consumer Survey 2019,” which lists Turkey as a global leader by a wide margin in terms of crypto use, one major crypto exchange after another announced plans to set up shop in the country. Huobi and Binance established their offices in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city and business center. Big players from Europe like Crypto.com and Bitpanda showed clear interest in the Turkish crypto ecosystem. The Turkish lira, …

İstanbul Başakşehir, last season’s winner of the Turkish soccer league, has joined the Socios platform and will launch its own fan token ($IBFK) by the end of 2020. $IBFK, like other fan tokens in the Socios ecosystem, confers voting rights and rewards upon holders, and is designed to boost fan engagement and monetize various fan experiences, both online and offline. Token holders can vote in polls on club decisions and earn points that, once accumulated, can be cashed iin exchange for VIP game tickets or opportunities to meet club players. İstanbul Başakşehir is the third Turkish club to sign on …

Vasco da Gama, one of the leading teams in Brazilian football, and Mercado Bitcoin, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Latin America, have announced plans to tokenize the rights of the solidarity mechanism of FIFA. The FIFA Solidarity Mechanism is a part of the FIFA Transfer Regulation, which acts as a selling right for a player and encourages clubs to develop young players. Through this mechanism, up to 5% of the total value of each international transfer of an athlete can be shared with all the clubs that an athlete went through during his career until he was 23 …

A Japanese professional soccer player is launching his own cryptocurrency to boost fan engagement. Keisuke Honda, former Japan midfielder and currently a captain of the Brazilian professional league team Botafogo, has launched his own token to build new connections with his fans, Cointelegraph Japan reported on Oct. 22. The so-called “KSK Honda Coin” was launched on Thursday via Rally.io, a blockchain platform for creating video streaming and gaming applications. The new coin is intended to enable fans to interact with Honda. Holders of KSK Honda token will be able to get exclusive content from Honda as well as interact with …

Another major soccer club is entering the cryptocurrency industry by tapping a partnership with a cryptocurrency exchange. SS Lazio, an Italian professional sports club, signed a multiyear deal with crypto trading platform StormGain. Announcing the news on Wednesday, StormGain said that it is now the “official crypto trading partner” of SS Lazio. According to the firm, the newly announced deal will enable StormGain and Lazio to boost fan engagement through unique giveaways like exclusive VIP suite hospitality at Lazio home matches. As part of the initiative, StormGain will be providing access to private tours and events at the Stadio Olimpico, …

Turkish football club Trabzonspor is the latest team to issue their own fan tokens using the Blockchain voting and rewards app, Socios.com, which will be available via the Chiliz exchange. According to the announcement, $TRA token holders will be able to vote in various polls and earn rewards for their engagement with the football club. Rewards could include VIP stadium attendee status, and even the ability to meet with players once the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. Socios’ app will also enable users to compete to become the #1 fan in their region or country. Sinan Zengin, general manager at Trabzonsport, …

Major Turkish crypto exchange BTCTurk has become the major sponsor of both the women's and men's Turkish national soccer teams via an agreement with the Turkish Football Federation, Cointelegraph Turkey reported on Aug. 20. According to the official announcement, the 28-month long agreement apparently makes BTCTurk the first cryptocurrency platform to sign a sponsorship with a national soccer team. Turkey's national soccer teams don't use sponsor logos on their uniforms, but a BTCTurk logo will be placed on players' training jerseys. Last year, BTCTurk struck a sponsorship deal with the Turkish Super League team Yeni Malatyaspor. BTCTurk CEO Özgür Güneri …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare has signed a licensing agreement with Italian Serie A football team S.S. Lazio. According to an announcement on March 17, the partnership will see official Lazio collectibles launched on the Ethereum blockchain. Unique Sorore cards have sold for more than $1,000 Sorare creates limited edition tokenized representations of soccer stars on the Ethereum blockchain. Cards can be traded on secondary markets or used in Sorare’s game. In the game, fantasy football managers compose teams of five player cards to compete for rewards. Sorore’s managers are ranked based on the performance of their chosen players, and …