Six months ago, Paul Pogba promoted an NFT (non-fungible token) project called Cryptodragons to social media followers and announced that their digital assets had just been sold for 35 Ethereum. This was worth $ 162,000 (£ 132,000) as the global crypto market was booming at the time.
Cryptodragons was claimed by Pogba as “a metaverse where dragons can breed, fight and earn Ethereum.” The scheme was first posted in mid-November, near the highest ever value of Ethereum cryptocurrencies where most NFTs are purchased.
However, interest in Cryptodragons has since declined, with little sales. The revenue generated is as low as tens of dollars, 99.9% less than the number advertised by Pogba, which has a website address in Twitter’s biography and is labeled as “Father of the Dragon” by the brand.
Manchester United and the French midfielder, however, are not the only soccer players to name the NFT scheme.
TTheir advocates are an exciting digital version of collectibles such as trading cards. Critics, however, say they are a means of financial speculation, but the lack of regulation means that investors are almost unreliable if they lose huge amounts of money to buy and sell NFTs. increase. And the numbers are now generally moving in only one direction.
John Terry’s miserable Ape Kids Football Club NFT Scheme Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Jack Wilshere, Ezri Konsa, Bobby Zamora, Daily Blind, Jan Vertonghen and Nigel de John advertised on their social media accounts.
Liverpool’s Trent Alexander Arnold changed his profile picture to a Muhammad Ali NFT image a few months ago. It’s a common theme for soccer players to post about NFTs, probably because there was a negative reaction to loud voices from some of his followers.
Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min joined Twitter earlier this month with more than 200,000 followers. One of his early posts was a quoted tweet about the NFT scheme, which also mentioned Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar. His son’s post was deleted after a backlash of anger from fans, but he still seems to support the plan on Instagram.
Michael Owen recently promoted the NFT scheme. He insisted that “value cannot be lost”Just a few months after his “De Race” NFT project started, it quickly gained value.
NFT and cryptocurrency companies with sponsorship agreements Rangers And Hibernian stopped trading tokens after its value collapsed. Scotland Andy Robertson of Liverpool, Manchester United player Luke Shaw Callum Hudson Odoy of Chelsea promoted Sportemon Go products on social media accounts, but these NFTs are no longer available in the secondary resale market.
In October, England’s greatest goal scorer, Wayne Rooney, described himself as a “Blockasset partner.” However, the NFT scheme promoted by Derby County managers, unlike many other projects promoted by current or previous soccer players, shows fairly consistent selling prices and is still traded in significant quantities. ..
Cryptodragons
Since November, the crypto market has declined, and the value of one Ethereum is less than half that of six months ago. But even more dramatically for those who may have purchased Pogba’s Crypto Dragon during peak hours, this particular project is completely worth it.
NFTs can be bought and sold on the OpenSea website, which acts like eBay for digital assets. The current “lowest price” for the Cryptodragons project (the lowest price you can buy an item) is only $ 34 (£ 27.90). Recent sales were as low as $ 19 (£ 15.60) and rarely exceeded $ 100 (£ 82) due to the dramatic drop in purchases last month.
“You should invest in hot dog packs,” says one user on the Cryptodragons Reddit page. “I bought my firstborn for 0.5 eth or something at launch,” says another person who explained that he spent about $ 2,000 (£ 1,640) on Cryptodragon when Pogba advertised it.
Pogba, which also promotes BitClout, a “blockchain-based social media platform” — With 10.1 million followers on Twitter and 53 million followers on Instagram, it is among the top 10 most followed players in the world.
The dragon’s father is here!I am happy to announce our partnership with @cryptodragons – NFT Champion. I can’t wait to get my first NFT-a dragon-filled egg.#cryptodragons #NFT #dragon #advertisement pic.twitter.com/31cxXi8Wog
— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) November 15, 2021
The 29-year-old wrote “#ad” in a post in favor of Cryptodragons. This means that he was paid to make a bragging post about the $ 162,000 purchase of the Digital Dragon Egg that made him the “Dragon Master.”
In the anonymous world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, it’s not clear if this purchase was genuine.
This world is full of “dressing clothes” where people buy and sell their assets and create high-priced illusions. This is illegal in regulated financial markets, but not in cryptocurrencies and NFTs. In this case, there is no direct evidence of wash trade.
Cryptodragons and Pogba did not respond to requests for comment.
Former Chelsea and England captain Terry created a Twitter account just a few months ago and immediately started using it to promote his favorite NFT project, and his own Ape Kids Football Club.
Soon, many other players began tweeting strange cartoon monkeys that sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Yes Nigel! I love artwork 🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/7yzetFrMEK
— Jan Vertonghen (@JanVertonghen) February 3, 2022
However, the project was completely unsuccessful, and the people who bought it when the hero was promoting it on social media are now suffering huge losses.
Terry’s Ape Kids Football Club NFT was publicly traded for an average price of $ 656 (£ 538) after its launch on February 2, but by March 8 it had an average price of $ 65 (£ 53). ), A 90% drop.
The “minimum price” of the project was only $ 41 (£ 34) after some NFTs were sold for $ several thousand at the beginning of the year when they were advertised to soccer players.
After Terry announces the Ape Kids Football Club In JanuaryThe Premier League, UEFA, and FA trophies have been removed from the NFT and Chelsea badges, the club to which Terry currently belongs, for intellectual property reasons.
Sportemon Go
Many of Pogba’s crypto dragons were bought and sold, albeit at a rapidly declining level, as seen in the public data on the NFT trading website OpenSea.
However, it’s unclear what happened with the NFTs forming the SportemonGo project approved by Robertson, Shaw, and Hudson-Odoi.
Websites are of poor quality and difficult to search. Hundreds of fans were quickly pointed out by questioning why these high-paying stars were pushing for such a plan.
The Sportemon Go NFT, like the NFT standard, is also not available for secondary resale on the website OpenSea, raising questions about money and where the NFT went.
It’s not even clear that these products are no longer present, not just prices plummeting.
future
Potential profits may have diminished significantly, but the rush to sign up for NFTs shows little sign of diminishing.
The Football Association is “groping” for its own NFT collection and, according to CEO Mark Bringham, could provide the organization with a “big new source of revenue.” The Premier League A company called ConsenSys has decided to launch its own NFT.
Several football clubs have also released their own NFT collections, including current champions. Manchester city And Champions League finalists Liverpool..
But, according to Jeraint Lloyd Taylor, deputy head of the advertising and marketing team at law firm Luis Silkin, “more stringent rules are coming.” “The government and the Financial Conduct Authority (in the UK) are discussing new rules. Brands, advertisers and influencers looking to take advantage of the crypto boom need to closely monitor this space.”
(Photo above: Cryptodragons)
