The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and blockchain platform VeChain have partnered to tokenize fighter gloves and use the VeChainThor network to track fighters’ identities.
TakeAway Points:
- The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and blockchain platform VeChain announced a partnership to tokenize fighter gloves.
- The collaboration aims to address the issue of fraud in the secondary market, where buyers often seek to own gloves worn during specific fights.
- Criticism centered around the belief that the transaction fees associated with the gloves would not burn enough VTHO to have a significant impact on the token’s price.
VeChain Teams Up with UFC
The business announced in a recent blog post that VeChain near-field communication (NFC) chips will be incorporated into the gloves worn by UFC competitors. This would allow for the recording of combat data and guarantee the authenticity of each pair.
The gloves will become valuable collector’s items after the fights when they are donated and distributed. Using a VeChainThor network smart contract, buyers may confirm the legitimacy of these gloves.
Tokenization on VeChain to Address Fraud Issue
The partnership attempts to tackle the problem of secondary market fraud, as buyers frequently want to possess gloves used in particular battles.
The supply-chain management solution offered by VeChain’s ToolChain system can be used to expedite the tracking and delivery of goods to the correct recipients.
UFC CEO Dana White will make a live presentation to announce the relationship before distributing the first batch of 12 unique gloves to A-list celebrities, including Joe Rogan.
Reactions from the VeChain community have been inconsistent on the platform’s Reddit board. Some users expressed enthusiasm for this new use case, highlighting the potential of minting real-world asset gloves as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for every UFC event.
Others welcomed the idea of merchandise tracking and suggested incorporating QR code scanning during televised events, which would further contribute to burning VeThor (VTHO) tokens.
However, not all community members were impressed by the announcement.The main argument against the gloves was that their transaction fees would not burn through enough VTHO to make a big difference in the token’s price.
As of April 12, VeThor’s market capitalization stood at over $283 million, positioning it among the top 300 cryptocurrencies globally, according to Coinmarketcap data.
In May 2022, the VeChain Foundation reported having $1.2 billion in its treasury. The partnership between VeChain and UFC began in June of the same year with a $100 million sponsorship deal, solidifying their collaborative efforts within the mixed martial arts promotion.
The Usage of Tokenized Funds Is Growing
The increasing tokenization of U.S. Treasury bonds are responsible for the value of tokenized funds, which increased from $100 million at the beginning of 2023 to about $800 million, according to a report earlier this year by leading investment risk assessment firm Moody’s.
The report also noted that a variety of assets are being added to both public and private blockchains. Notable examples include the expansion of Franklin Templeton’s U.S. Government Money Fund from Stellar to Polygon, the introduction of a tokenized short-term U.S. treasury bond exchange-traded fund (ETF) by Backed Finance, and the deployment of a tokenized money market fund (MMF) on the Ethereum blockchain by UBS Asset Management.
According to Moody’s, the tokenization of MMFs offers the potential to combine their stability with the technological advantages of stablecoins.
Last month, DigiFT, a Singapore-based fintech company, also announced the launch of its US Treasury bill depository receipt (DR) tokens.
