Interviewed by BFM Crypto, Alexandre Dreyfus discussed the strategy of his token platform, which has 1.5 million users.
Created in 2018 by Frenchman Alexandre Dreyfus, the platform for Socio tokens allows supporters to make decisions about the life of clubs thanks to a “fan token” principle. This principle, invented by Socios, is a mix between a cryptocurrency and an NFT (non-fungible token). Fan tokens can only be purchased with the chiliz cryptocurrency, also created in 2018.
Fan tokens “are fully fungible digital assets that give you voting rights and other fan-centric utilities for the various teams that each fan token is associated with,” the company’s site clarifies. “Fan Tokens never expire, and since they are fungible, they can be freely exchanged for chiliz on the Socios.com platform and off-platform at any other fan token exchange provider licensed to operate on the Blockchain from Chiliz”, specifies the site.
“The current situation is a necessary evil”
The chiliz cryptocurrency is in 68th position in the Coinmarketcap ranking, which ranks cryptocurrencies according to their capitalization. It weighs to date a capitalization of 683 million dollars. According to data from Etherscan, which allows you to see transactions on different blockchains, around 142,000 users hold chiliz. Alexandre Dreyfus claims up to 500,000 or even 1 million holders of this cryptocurrency.
Like many cryptocurrencies, the price of chiliz was turned upside down by the storm experienced by the ecosystem last week. In particular, it hit its lowest in a month at $0.08 on May 12, before rising to around $0.11 on Thursday. But we are still far from the last peak reached on March 30 when a chilliz traded against 0.29 dollars (i.e. -62% since then) or from its historic peak at 0.64 dollars in April 2021 (-83% since that date).
Last week, in fact, the cryptocurrency and stablecoin market experienced severe turbulence which had short-term implications but which also raises longer-term questions, in particular about the resilience of the sector.
“The current situation is a necessary evil, there was a lot of money at one point. Me who lived the 2000s as an entrepreneur: everything was going very quickly. Today, we are going back to the basics a little healthier. We need to have the time to build useful projects for users”, says Alexandre Dreyfus.
To date, Socios is the partner of more than 60 football clubs, including PSG, Juventus and Manchester City. Concretely, a PSG fan can buy a “PSG fan token” at the current price of 8 euros, giving him the right to make decisions about the life of the club. Concretely, to make decisions, supporters can vote on the Chiliz blockchain, a fan token then being equivalent to a vote.
For example, while the celebration of PSG’s tenth championship title will take place on May 21, supporters who have acquired fan tokens have been able to give ideas on the design of the entrance to the stadium or on the music. use. PSG would have between 30,000 and 50,000 fan token owners, Alexandre Dreyfus told us. “More than 90% of token owners are not in France: it is the interest of the blockchain which engages fans who are not necessarily in the stadium”, underlines Alexandre Dreyfus.
The Socios.com application, launched in November 2019, would therefore have more than more than 1.5 million users, its boss claiming that the figure has multiplied by 10 in one year. These are users with an account on Socios, who can hold fan tokens, but Socios fan tokens are also distributed by other trading platforms such as the giant Binance.
Socios is also facing new competitors: if Binance offers Socios fan tokens, the platform also launched its first fan tokens last year with the Lazio Rome football club and has since had new partners such as the FC Porto or Santos FC. Similarly, Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Bitci.com also offers dozens of fan tokens at present.
Partnership with Messi
To date, the Malta-based platform, which has 200 employees, has an Estonian license and authorization from the Swiss regulator to operate, which allows it to advertise on television in different countries. Separately, Socios announced on Tuesday that they have signed Lionel Messi as an ambassador to represent the brand. But the group would like to go faster.
“We already have almost 40 employees in France, developers, and we continue to invest in France. We would consider registering as a service provider on digital assets (PSAN) at some point, if we need to develop further in France in terms of marketing”, confides to BFM Crypto Alexandre Dreyfus.
Registration as a PSAN in France would give it both greater credibility as a platform in France, but also allow it to advertise (but without canvassing) to French customers.