A new DeFi play is bringing real-world asset tokenization into the heart of sports finance — starting with soccer’s chronic cash-flow problem.
Chiliz, the blockchain project best known for fan tokens, announced Monday that its Decentral protocol will let clubs convert future receivables (think broadcast and commercial rights) into on-chain collateral to raise stablecoin liquidity. The announcement, shared with CoinDesk, outlines a system where clubs and sports organizations can tap immediate capital by tokenizing expected revenues, while investors provide funding to decentralized pools.
How it works
- Clubs upload future receivables such as media contracts onto the protocol as tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
- Those tokenized claims back lending pools that issue liquidity in USDC stablecoin.
- Investors deposit capital into the decentralized pools in exchange for yield, and clubs receive faster access to cash without going through banks or specialized funds that often carry high fees and heavy administration.
Chiliz will seed Decentral with an initial $1 million liquidity pool in USDC, featuring a 90-day lock-up and an anticipated 12% APY, the release says.
Why it matters
Many clubs — especially those outside football’s financial elite — sit on long-term, valuable contracts but still face day-to-day funding shortfalls. By turning future revenues into on-chain RWAs, the model aims to speed settlement, increase transparency and open access to a global base of capital. Tokenization lets traditional assets be represented as blockchain tokens that can be bought, sold and traded, broadening where and how financing can be obtained.
“This reflects SportFi’s shift from concept to practical utility,” Chiliz founder Alex Dreyfus said, framing the move as a step toward using blockchain infrastructure to finance the core mechanics of the sports economy.
Context and caveats
Chiliz has been a major force in SportFi, primarily through fan tokens that let supporters speculate on a team’s fortunes while unlocking exclusive rewards. Decentral’s receivables-tokenization is a more direct application of blockchain to core sports finance. As with any RWA project, legal, operational and counterparty risks — such as enforceability of on-chain claims to off-chain cash flows — will be key considerations for clubs and investors.
If successful, the Decentral model could offer a new liquidity channel for sports organizations and an alternative yield opportunity for crypto investors, further blurring the line between traditional finance and decentralized markets.
Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news
