The price of soccer fan tokens, which are meant to increase fan involvement, appears to be influenced by team success on the field. Argentina’s 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in the opening match of the FIFA World Cup has lowered the value of the Argentine Football Association Fan Token (ARG), in keeping with the nation’s die-hard soccer supporters’ expectations.

According to Coingecko statistics, the ARG token was valued at $7.21 at the start of the competition, but the poor performance of the Lionel Messi-led soccer squad caused the token’s price to decrease 31% to $4.96 by the end of the match before rebounding to $5.22 at the time of writing.

In comparison, the floor price of “The Saudis,” a Saudi Arabian-themed nonfungible token (NFT) collection unconnected to the soccer club, jumped 52.6% from 0.196 Ether (ETH) to 0.3 ETH during the same time period before settling at 0.225 ETH, or roughly $250.

According to OpenSea statistics, the collection’s sales volume increased by 990% in the previous 24 hours, reaching 24.5 ETH.

Despite the build-up to the FIFA World Cup, which began on November 20, cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital noted that the fan engagement platform Socios’ native token Chiliz (CHZ), as well as other soccer-based tokens representing participating nations, have also cooled off significantly in recent days:

Football Fan Tokens have cratered over the past 3 days as the FIFA World Cup 2022 Begins:

Chilis / $CHZ: -21%
Argentina / $ARG: -17%
Portugal / $POR: -17%
Brazil / $BFT: -21%
Spain / $SNFT: -31%
Peru / $FPFT: -26%

The index (FOOTBALL) is down 21% over the period. pic.twitter.com/y7tb72R3Et

— Delphi Digital (@Delphi_Digital) November 21, 2022

CHZ is an ERC-20 token that is native to Socios, a blockchain-powered fan interaction platform that has been a major contributor to the sports-fan token explosion.

Many sports-related tokens are powered by Socios, which has relationships with some of the world’s greatest soccer teams, including Barcelona F.C., Paris Saint-Germain F.C., and Manchester City F.C.

While the tokens do not reflect team ownership, they do allow buyers to vote on specific choices made by sponsored teams as well as get access to certain benefits.

Popularity for fan-based tokens has recently increased in the athletic business, with token sales volumes frequently growing by more than 250% month on month since January 2022.

Despite the fact that the tokens were not meant for that purpose, some appear to have interpreted them as an indirect method to wager on the performance of such teams.

Other than the on-field performance of soccer teams, the tokens are influenced by variables such as the usual ebbs and flows of crypto markets and big news events.

As an example, the recent FTX collapse caused the price of CHZ to plunge by roughly 40% on news of the exchange’s liquidity difficulties and impending insolvency.

In May, the smart contract platform Algorand became the FIFA World Cup’s first official blockchain-based sponsor.