Barcelona distances itself from sponsor’s cryptocurrency after backlash

The Spanish soccer big Barcelona has instructed followers it has “no connection by any means” with the digital coin supplied by its new crypto associate, following criticism over the deal.

Golf equipment typically decide up sponsors in uncommon areas to usher in more money – with Arsenal bringing in Persil as its material care associate in 2023, and Kellogg’s changing into Manchester Metropolis’s breakfast cereal associate that very same yr.

However far much less is understood about Zero Information Proof (ZKP), which signed a three-year sponsorship deal in mid-November with Barcelona.

ZKP then introduced a cryptocurrency, prompting considerations Barcelona followers could possibly be led to spend money on it – main the membership to distance itself from the coin.

“The membership has no duty for, or involvement in, the issuance or administration of this token, nor does it use the related expertise,” the membership mentioned in an announcement on its web site.

Little is understood about ZKP, which additionally introduced an identical sponsorship cope with Australian rugby league group Dolphins in early November.

On its web site, it says the venture has been based and developed by “a pseudonymous collective” based mostly throughout “a number of jurisdictions”.

In different phrases, the agency is just not revealing the names or places of these behind it.

College of Sussex professor Carol Alexander mentioned the Barcelona model offers monumental visibility to crypto companies like ZKP – however there may be “substantial threat for supporters who purchase the tokens”.

“Sponsorship creates an aura of credibility, even when the underlying venture is opaque,” she instructed the BBC – saying this meant followers and supporters ought to be “very cautious”.

“Earlier than shopping for any crypto asset they need to ask who controls it, the place the documentation is, and what recourse they’ve if it fails,” she mentioned.

“With ZKP, none of these solutions are clear.”

Particulars about ZKP are few and much between, with the agency even claiming it has no single headquarters.

However the Monetary Occasions reported an earlier model of the corporate’s phrases listed an workplace situated in Apia, the capital of Samoa.

The ZKP identify can also be the time period used to explain a kind of expertise designed to boost the privateness of a blockchain – a digital file of transactions which underpins cryptocurrencies.

Its cope with Barcelona comes because the soccer membership is reportedly going through an uphill battle to boost income and relieve its debt.

“Barcelona’s funds in recent times have been perilous, so the membership seems to have adopted a method of ‘financial institution the cash first, ask questions later’,” mentioned soccer finance knowledgeable and creator Kieran Maguire.

He instructed the BBC “crypto merchandise search legitimacy and normalisation from those who speculate on their merchandise”.

To associate with a soccer membership, significantly one as well-known as Barcelona, “helps obtain these ambitions,” he mentioned.

And former Barcelona youth participant Xavier Vilajoana, who reportedly is bidding to be its subsequent president, known as on the membership to make clear how the deal had come about in a publish on X.

He additionally requested the membership about ZKP’s relationship with self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate – considered one of solely three X accounts the crypto agency follows on the platform.

The BBC has approached Barcelona for a response.