Blockasset Athlete NFTs Drop Solana for Chiliz Sports Platform

Athlete NFT platform Blockasset announced today that it is leaving Solana for Chiliz Chain 2.0, the Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible Layer-1 blockchain from sports fan token firm Chiliz. 

Blockasset will meanwhile receive an equity investment from Chiliz, which owns the Socios fan token and rewards platform. Socios works with more than 170 partners including teams across the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, and top soccer leagues around the world. The investment comes through Chiliz Labs, the $50 million incubator Chiliz launched with VC firm Jump Crypto to support blockchain projects in sports.

More than 40 athletes offer NFTs through Blockasset, including former English soccer star Wayne Rooney, NHL star Alex Ovechkin, New Zealand rugby player Jonah Lomu, and UFC star Jorge Masvidal.

Blockasset joins livestreaming provider FanFest and media gamification platform LiveLike in moving onto Chiliz’s blockchain.

Blockasset’s departure from Solana follows DeGods and y00ts, two NFT collections that left Solana in January to join the Ethereum sidechain Polygon. Solana’s stature began to slump in late-2022 amid the collapse of FTX as Sam Bankman-Fried was a major Solana investor and built on its blockchain. 

“Blockasset’s athlete-verified token approach is different yet completely complementary to our Socios.com team Fan Token model, allowing us to strengthen the utility of our Fan Tokens and increase our catalog of rewards through cross activations,” Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus said in a statement.

Fans can buy Blockasset’s NFTs to access perks such as Discord chats with athletes, meet and greets, merchandise, and signed memorabilia.

Chiliz offers similar rewards through Socios, its fan token platform that lets users vote in polls related to their favorite teams. Socios has other deals with the UFC, Professional Fighters League and owns an equity stake in FC Barcelona’s digital studio. Lionel Messi, soccer’s biggest star, is a global brand ambassador for Socios. 

Chiliz says it plans to further invest in web3 projects to onboard onto its blockchain, with an emphasis on NFT ticketing and Play 2 Earn games.