30th November 2025
December 1 – FC Barcelona is in damage limitation zone after its new crypto partner rolled out a digital coin, stressing that the club has “no connection whatsoever” to the token.
Teams have always looked for new categories of commercial partners to boost revenue, but crypto is still a new world, and too often people don’t fully understand what they’re buying and what they’re being sold.
Barcelona’s deal with Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) is a good example. The club signed a three-year sponsorship with ZKP as the Official Blockchain Technology Partner in mid-November. Soon after, ZKP introduced a cryptocurrency, sparking concerns that fans might assume the coin had Barça’s backing.
The club quickly put out a statement saying: “The club has no responsibility for, or involvement in, the issuance or management of this token, nor does it use the associated technology.”
ZKP is itself a mystery. It has also partnered with the new franchise Australian rugby league side the Dolphins, and describes itself as a “pseudonymous collective” working across multiple jurisdictions. In plain terms, the people running it aren’t identifying themselves.
Carol Alexander, a professor at the University of Sussex, says this is exactly why these deals worry her. A club like Barcelona gives a crypto project instant visibility and an impression of legitimacy, even when the company behind it is largely a mystery. She says fans should be cautious and ask basic questions before buying in, and ask the questions about who controls the asset, where the documentation is, and what protection they have if things go wrong. With ZKP, she says, none of those answers is clear.
Barcelona’s own financial struggles play into this. The club has been scrambling for revenue, and football finance expert Kieran Maguire says it looks like a case of grabbing the cash first and dealing with the complications later. Crypto companies, for their part, get credibility simply by being linked to a global brand.
The deal has even drawn internal criticism. Former Barça youth player Xavier Vilajoana, who is reportedly running for club president, has asked the club to explain how the partnership was approved. He also questioned why ZKP follows only three accounts on X, including that of controversial former kickboxer Andrew Tate.
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