Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the most popular athletes in the world.
Over his illustrious career, he’s collected 29 trophies, scored over 700 goals, and won five Ballon d’Or (the European footballer of the year) awards.
In 2018 and 2019, ESPN named Cristiano the most popular athlete in the world… beating out LeBron James, Roger Federer, and Conor McGregor.
All that success has paid off handsomely. Over the last decade, he’s made $800 million – more than any other professional athlete except Floyd Mayweather Jr.
So it’s no wonder his current team, Juventus, sold over $60 million worth of Ronaldo jerseys on the very first day he joined the club.
But the club has found a new way to profit from its star player’s popularity… and it involves blockchain tech.
Today, I’ll tell you how it works… and the easiest way to profit from it.
Collectibles Go Blockchain
Last month, Juventus announced a partnership with French blockchain company Sorare to offer digital collectible cards of its players, including Cristiano Ronaldo.
The company also has 37 other European football clubs under license.
What’s unique about Sorare’s collectibles is they’re tokenized. So you can buy, sell, or trade them on the blockchain just like cryptos.
For each player, Sorare creates three types of cards: unique, super rare, and rare. The categories issue 1, 10, and 100 cards, respectively.
Now, with traditional collectibles, once you get them, that’s it. There isn’t much to do besides hold or display them… and hope they appreciate in price.
Digital collectibles are more interactive.
For example, Sorare allows you to build a European football team using respective player cards. Then you can enter your team in fantasy football contests to earn prizes.
More importantly, your digital collectibles aren’t held captive on the Sorare platform.
Most gaming platforms don’t let you move your digital collectibles to another platform. So they only retain value in the ecosystem where you obtained them.
With blockchain-based collectibles, you can take your in-game digital items with you – a first in the industry.
Historically, in-game items have been centrally controlled. So gamers are at the mercy of game creators. If they want to remove an item, there’s nothing you can do about it.
But Sorare’s cards are based on the Ethereum blockchain. So you can send them to any Ethereum wallet – just like you can send crypto to most wallets. And of course, you can also sell them in the secondary market.
This is one of the best features of blockchain-based collectibles: True ownership.
Now, you may think this is just a niche opportunity… but gaming is a huge industry.
There are about 2.3 billion gamers worldwide. And they spend $140 billion annually, including an estimated $50 billion in secondary trading volume.
With an audience that big – and so much revenue at stake – this type of application can propel blockchain into mainstream usage.
But the opportunity is so much bigger.
You see, digital goods can be virtual (like a Cristiano Ronaldo digital card), or tangible (like a Cristiano Ronaldo jersey).
The market size for real-world digital goods is estimated to be $1.8 trillion. And as I’ll show you, the market for these digital goods is already developing.
Blockchain Collectibles: More Than a Cool Idea
Last month, I attended NFT.NYC – the premier conference on blockchain-based collectibles.
And this year, it featured over 30 companies, 100 speakers, and 500 attendees.
The conference featured top companies in the space such as OpenSea, Dapper Labs, and NFT.Kred. It also had representatives from major sports leagues like the NBA and NFL.
Now, you may be thrown off by the acronym NFT. It stands for non-fungible token – just a fancy way of saying “digital collectible.” But all you need to know is that each NFT token is unique. And an NFT can prove the authenticity and ownership of the goods behind it.
The consensus among attendees is that NFTs will disrupt global economies and radically change how commerce is transacted.
What’s great about NFTs is, they’re more than just a cool idea. There are already real-world use cases in collectibles, gaming, venture capital, fundraising, art, decentralized finance, and more.
Let me give you a few examples from what I learned at NFT.NYC:
- OpenSea: The leading secondary exchange for NFTs. It supports all items on Ethereum and has over 4 million listed to date. Monthly volume is averaging $1 million.
- Gods Unchained: A competitive trading card game. Cards, each of which is an NFT, are used in game play. Plus, they can be bought, sold, traded, and even combined to form unique cards.
- Unstoppable Domains: A decentralized domain provider. Like GoDaddy, but decentralized. Your domain name is an NFT. It can easily be sold. And it can’t be shut down by central authorities.
- CryptoKicks: Still in development, this is Nike’s plan to attach a token with a physical pair of sports shoes. The token acts as a unique identifier, provides information on all the attributes of the shoe, and can be traded in secondary markets.
- GenoBank.io: Founded by Daniel Uribe, it’ll essentially put your DNA on the blockchain, where you’ll be able to control how and when your information is used.
All of these are made possible with NFT technology.
In short, NFTs have the potential to bring blockchain to a mainstream audience in 2020.
How to Profit From NFTs
Some of you may not care about video games or blockchain-based collectibles. But the NFT movement will be big for the crypto space.
Many new use cases will emerge, increasing crypto adoption and bringing more people into the ecosystem.
Like with most things blockchain, the success of NFTs will rest on improving user experience. When it gets as easy as a click of the mouse, you’ll see millions of gamers and collectors using the blockchain.
I can tell you from my time at the conference, it’s the top priority for NFT projects. We’ll know we’re onto something when people start using NFTs, without even knowing it.
In the meantime, the easiest way to profit from NFTs is to own the underlying technology.
Although you can create NFTs on any blockchain, the leader in this space is Ethereum.
So a small position in ether (ETH) – the underlying currency of Ethereum – is a good way to play this trend.
Just remember, crypto is very volatile. You don’t need to invest a lot to make life-changing gains.
Regards,
 |
Greg Wilson
Analyst, Palm Beach Daily
P.S. As I mentioned above, the NFT movement will be big for crypto. So now’s the time to get into this trend. Because a rare event that’s about to take place can transform a handful of $500 investments into millions.
On Wednesday, March 18, at 8 p.m. ET, Daily editor Teeka Tiwari will show you how five carefully chosen cryptos can potentially make you as much as $5 million.
He’ll reveal all the details on how to get access to what he calls “The Final Five.” But you must reserve your seat now. Spots are filling up quickly.
Like what you’re reading? Send us your thoughts by clicking here.