Manchester City FC Cut Ties With Crypto Firm 3Key Technologies

A few months after their partnership, Manchester City FC cut ties with the crypto company 3Key Technologies but what exactly happened? Let’s find out in today’s crypto news.

In the past few months, reports emerged that the Manchester City FC partnered with a crypto company dubbed 3Key Technology. In November, The Times reported that Manchester City suspended their partnership with the company over questions about the identities of the senior executives at the company. The crypto company reportedly is registered in Seychelles but there’s no proof of the existence in the nation’s companies database.

Now, however, we can see that Manchester City FC cut ties with the crypto company, alluding that it was unclear who the company’s senior executives were. The short partnership with 3Key technologies is not the first time that the organization dabbled into crypto. The football club is just one of the few in the world’s soccer clubs that got into crypto. Last year, Manchester City launched its CITY fan token in partnership with Socios which is a tokenization platform. The club-related tokens allow fans to claim VIP rewards and club promotions so with the surge of the soccer cub tokens, Manchester City and other football clubs did well.

Last month, the BBC also said that over $350 million were spent on the fan tokens with funds spanning across the English Premier League and other soccer leagues in Europe. However, the fan tokens also became a point of controversy because of their large numbers. The West Ham Fan Sue Watson noted:

“My knowledge of the crypto market is sketchy to say the least, and I’m probably representative of a large number of run-of-the-mill football supporters who are not traders on the crypto market.”

The UK Advertising Standards Authority also took notice of the fan tokens and it even banned Arsenal’s FC AFC Token ads calling them irresponsible. As per the ASA, the ads trivialized investment in crypto asses and took advantage of the consumers’ inexperience. Arsenal FC is one of the top UK-ranking soccer clubs but recently it got a reprimand from the UK ads regulator for irresponsible and misleading promotion of the fan token that was introduced on July 12 in partnership with Socios.