Argentina’s fan token (ARG) plunges after Albiceleste’s first surprise World Cup loss

What’s interesting is that Argentina’s fan token isn’t the only one to lose value. The Brazil fan token dropped by about 10%. Similarly, the Spanish national team fan token dropped by 7%.

The Argentina (ARG) fan token suffered a loss in value after tournament favorites Argentina lost their first game of the World Cup to Saudi Arabia.

In an unexpected turn of events, Saudi Arabia came from behind to end Argentina’s 36-game unbeaten streak and provide a shock to the World Cup. After the loss, ARG dropped from around $7.20 at the start of the game to $4.96, according to CoinGecko data. Although it has since recovered and is trading at $5.31 at the time of writing, it is still far from its peak value of $9.19, reached about five days ago.

Created by Chiliz in partnership with the Argentine Football Federation, the ARG token is an ERC-20 token, available for purchase on the Socios app. It is also available on several other exchanges, including OKX and Gate.io.

Chiliz explains that the tokens give their owners voting rights in supporter decisions and access to an inner circle of supporters. “The more tokens a fan holds and the more they vote, the higher their influence index.“Holders also go through different reward levels until they receive all available VIP offers.

Not just the “Argentina Fan” token.

The “Argentina Fan” tokenArgentina Fan“is just one example. Numerous clubs and national teams have partnered with Bitci and Chiliz to create fan tokens, generating millions of dollars in revenue. Many of these national team tokens saw their prices skyrocket in the days leading up to the World Cup, revealing cup feelings.

After Tuesday’s loss, what’s interesting is that it’s not just the Argentina fan token that has lost value. The Brazil fan chip dropped about 10% to $0.7386 on Tuesday. Similarly, the Spanish national team fan chip dropped 7% to $0.7386.

Some speculation suggests that the activity around fan tokens suggests that fans are using them to indirectly bet on games. What makes this hypothesis even more likely is that after the Saudi team won, an Ethereum NFT collection called The Saudis saw a spike in sales, even though it has no connection to the Saudi team.

One thing that is clear is that crypto tokens and NFTs named after real entities often see price spikes or drops after major events surrounding those entities. For example, during Johnny Depp’s trial with Amber Heard, his NFTs jumped. Since then, they have dropped and returned to pre-trial levels.