Fans face big cryptocurrency losses after platform goes into liquidation

[josie andrews]

One of sport’s biggest cryptocurrency-based fan platforms has gone into liquidation, leaving thousands of supporters with tokens that are now virtually worthless.

IQONIQ, which had deals with La Liga in Spain, the McLaren Formula One team and several leading European football clubs, has collapsed in Monaco. It was in effect a social media engagement platform for fans of the sports it sponsored and it sold its own cryptocurrency tokens.

One of sport’s biggest cryptocurrency-based fan platforms has gone into liquidation, leaving thousands of supporters with tokens that are now virtually worthless.

IQONIQ, which had deals with La Liga in Spain, the McLaren Formula One team and several leading European football clubs, has collapsed in Monaco. It was in effect a social media engagement platform for fans of the sports it sponsored and it sold its own cryptocurrency tokens.

The liquidation of the platform leaves clubs, sports organisations and fans potentially out of pocket. Its chief executive said that “millions” of IQONIQ tokens or coins had been bought and admitted that they were now worth almost nothing. However, he insisted that the value could bounce back. The Spanish club Real Sociedad have said that they are owed €820,000 (about £685,000) by IQONIQ. Crystal Palace have begun legal action over missed payments.

Kazim Atilla, the chief executive of IQONIQ, said that the company had been severely affected by the pandemic but insisted that it was still operating and would now move from Monaco to another country.

The Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) said that league chiefs and the government need to regulate cryptocurrency-related platforms. Socios, the leading fan engagement platform with 1.3 million users globally, has also written to the Premier League saying that there needs to be a code of practice for all cryptocurrency-related partnerships with English top-flight clubs.

IQONIQ had intended to become the “world’s No 1 fan engagement platform” by 2025. A commercial executive at one of the teams that signed a deal with the platform said they had been persuaded by the fact it already had high-profile partners in sport.

Its liquidation was officially confirmed in Monaco on Christmas Eve. Investigations by The Times have established that IQONIQ failed to pay sporting partners on time and Atilla confirmed that it had suffered financial problems.

Crystal Palace announced a shirtsleeve sponsorship deal with IQONIQ in September 2020 but the partnership was suspended in February 2021 before the launch of any fan tokens or promotions. It is understood the club suspended the deal after a payment was missed.

In January 2021, Essex County Cricket Club signed a three-year deal with IQONIQ, promising their supporters “a much more personalised experience”. Essex did not respond when asked to comment.


In rugby league, several Betfred Super League clubs signed agreements, including Wigan Warriors, who had their shirts sponsored by IQONIQ last season and had been due to continue with the branding this season.

A Wigan spokesman confirmed that the club were “aware of the situation” with IQONIQ but declined to comment. La Liga also declined to comment on its licensing deal with the platform.

McLaren confirmed that its contract with IQONIQ had been terminated.

There is no regulation of cryptocurrencies at the moment and an FSA spokesman told The Times: “FSA members have raised legitimate concerns about cryptocurrency-based engagement partnerships at their clubs, some of which are shared by the Advertising Standards Agency, [which] said promotion of these deals trivialised the dangers around cryptoassets.”

According to the Norwegian investigative website Josimar, IQONIQ listed its own cryptocurrency on a cryptoexchange in March last year, but its value plummeted and by the turn of this year it was worth almost nothing.

Atilla said: “We are still busy with our partners to get the right solution.”

Former staff at the company have told The Times that they are owed substantial sums in unpaid salaries

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fans ... -czxpcwd60

[josie andrews]

Bloody Hell!!

[medlocke]

Lenners sure can pick em

[Wigan_forever1985]

To be fair if McLaren and La Liga had their eye wiped too then i dont think you cant single it out as a poor move from Wigan, seems to me just one of those things.

I had thought on sponsorship though that the Channel 4 deal in theory should make it easier for sponsorship as its viewing without paywall - now obviously that would depend on figures they generate but i expect they will be fairly strong.

Id be looking at the companies who advertise with Channel 4 surely they would be a good first stop

[fozzieskem]

We've all seen this coming surely though?

Seems an awful lot of the great and the good names in sport have been taken in by this firm not just wigan

[DaveO]

They were founded in 2019 so are or were a new-ish company but they secured a €100 million capital funding agreement a Luxembourg based investment corporation Lux Media Investments in 2020. So they must have looked like a viable partner to many, not just Wigan.

[WarriorWinger]

Plus let's face it, they are a sports fan based company, in a year(ish) where hardly any sport has taken place so were on a hiding to nothing once sport shut down, different timimg and who knows how good/strong the business model could have been

[Wintergreen]

I'm not sure there is any blame here.

I am not aware of the commercials either so can't really comment.

[Brennox7]

Hi folks,

Just reading about iqonic going into liquidation. I also seen during the Newcastle game we were wearing shirt with no front sponsor..
Is this our kit for the year? I noticed during the kit launch we had to available to buy on the website. One plain shirt without big sponsor and one with iqonic on the front.

Anyone know? Cheers, Bill

[fozzieskem]

They were founded in 2019 so are or were a new-ish company but they secured a €100 million capital funding agreement a Luxembourg based investment corporation Lux Media Investments in 2020. So they must have looked like a viable partner to many, not just Wigan.

Indeed I'd go further than that if it had taken off it'd have been seen almost as a blue chip company,had it taken off,now it looks like they where trying to flog fresh air