Cristiano Ronaldo Becomes First Footballer to Receive Cryptocurrency
- Cristiano Ronaldo becomes the first player to get paid in cryptocurrency by a football club
- The tokens were raised by fans through Juventus tokens to celebrate Ronaldo's goal milestone
- Juventus and many other clubs, as well as companies, have seen cryptocurrency as a form of payment
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Cristiano Ronaldo made history on Sunday, becoming the first footballer to receive cryptocurrency as payment. The Portuguese player was awarded 770 fan tokens for his record-breaking goal milestone.
Ronaldo had recorded 761 career goals after his hat-trick against Cagliari on March 14, 2021. To appreciate his goal record, the Ballon D’Or recipient was given 770 fan tokens by Juventus before the match against Benevento, according to Marca.
This makes the Juve player the first footballer to receive cryptocurrency as payment. The Italian side had created the tokens in partnership with Chillz and Socios. The digital asset is usually raised through an initial coin offering.
Football clubs have been investing in cryptocurrency tokens to include fans in the activities of their clubs. Club tokens are raised for specific reasons. Aside from the Old Lady, other football clubs also have their fan tokens.
The likes of Manchester City, Barcelona, Roma, Athletico Madrid, and many more have their fan tokens. These clubs also partnered with Chillz and Socios to developed their tokens.
Source: UGC
The digital asset awarded by Juventus made the Italian side the first to pay a player with tokens, and Ronaldo the first player to receive crypto payment.
However, David Barral, former Real Madrid striker, was the first player to be bought with cryptocurrency, following a deal between DUX Internacional de Madrid, a Spanish third division side, otherwise known as Inter Madrid, and their sponsors, Criptian.
Criptain trades in cryptocurrency, and it invested in the club to land the 37-year-old Spaniard in January 2021.
The use of cryptocurrency for payment is becoming a norm among global companies, even though the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said credible organisations don't want to be associated with it.
Aside from football clubs, companies like Tesla had also made it known that it intends to receive cryptocurrency as payment for its vehicles. Also, Mastercard, as well as Pay Pal have stated that merchants will be allowed to receive crypto as a form of transaction.
Meanwhile, Briefly.co.za reported previously a clip of Aliko Dangote addressing some workers has gone viral.
According to a Twitter user, Omasoro Ali Ovie, the people in the video are employees working at his new fertiliser plant.
The tweep also said the meeting happened when the plant was running a production test run. With facemasks on, the employees acknowledged Dangote's words as they swiftly returned to monitoring engine performance on their desktop computers.
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Source: Briefly News
Maryn Blignaut (Human-Interest HOD) Maryn Blignaut is the Human Interest manager and feature writer. She holds a BA degree in Communication Science, which she obtained from the University of South Africa in 2016. She joined the Briefly - South African News team shortly after graduating and has over six years of experience in the journalism field. Maryn passed the AFP Digital Investigation Techniques course (Google News Initiative), as well as a set of trainings for journalists by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at: maryn.blignaut@briefly.co.za
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
