Liam Thomas

Tue 21 February 2023 9:30, UK

Football author Martin Calladine has brought attention to the “weird” increase in Everton fan tokens which has seemingly happened overnight.

Calladine confessed that the Blues’ volume of trading on their fan token increased by 15x overnight, something that was not repeated on any other Premier League token.

The huge spike in trading occurred on 23 January and in the six weeks since then trading volumes have stayed “very high” at about £60,000 a day.

“Something weird is going on with Everton fan tokens. Despite the price being in the doldrums, in the last month, the volume of trading increased overnight by 15x, something not repeated on any other Premier League token,” wrote Calladine on his personal Twitter account. (20 February, 2:38 PM)

“Here’s the Everton token price since 1st December. The tokens are currently worth about 45p, which is where they’ve been for about two months. (Listed in late Oct 21, they’ve been below their £2 launch price since 16/11/21.)

“But look at the trading volumes. For most of the last sixth months, action was very slow, with daily trading volumes generally at about £3,000-£4,000. And then, on 23rd January, a huge spike in trading occurred.

“In the six weeks since then, trading volumes have stayed very high at about £60,000 a day. But the strangest thing is that doesn’t reflect a change in price – it’s bobbed around a lot, but there’s been no significant increase in price.

“Going back to Everton, generally you would expect a huge increase in trading volumes to reflect in a price increase. This didn’t happen. The question is why?

“One thing that could account for it is if the token supply increased substantially. And, indeed, Everton released an additional 43,000 tokens in the last three months. However, that only equates to a 5% increase in the circulating supply.

“And so the mystery remains: what happened on 23rd January that catapulted trading volumes of tokens up by 15x, why have they stayed that high and why doesn’t it seem to be reflected in the price? Keen to hear any explanations you may have.”

Dyche stonks?

Volatile market conditions make fan tokens a poor investment for all involved and it’s a bizarre trend that has seemed to piggyback on the undying support of fans in their clubs.

Investing in itself is a risky business without in-depth research and know-how of what you’re getting involved with and the performance of fans tokens shows it’s one to avoid.

Especially when a fan token can take an unexpected and massive swing like the one Calladine highlighted, this probably suggests that something fishy is taking place and definitely not something you want your money involved with.

Fan tokens are sold to would-be investors as a form of digital membership for their beloved clubs that will in turn reward loyalty and engagement.

This isn’t to be confused with buying direct shares in a corporation that owns a football club though, which can give direct rights to sporting and financial decisions.

In theory, fan tokens should and could be the future of how football teams operate and communicate with fans as we enter the Web3 era.

Although, their messy and seemingly consistent loss of value proves that they are not quite at the level to get excited about just yet.