CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 82.67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money

Pro athletes teaming up to develop new digital tokens

By Monte Stewart

03:07, 9 June 2022

An American Football player runs with the ball
Sports backed learn to earn program offers tokens to users - source, The Players Company

Growing up as an African-American in the US, Amir Carlisle noticed that his financially strapped family and community were not able to build wealth.

“The only thing that was passed down was debt,” he told Capital.com.

Later, when he became a professional football player, he observed that pro athletes, who have short careers on average, often squandered their earnings but he has spotted a potential solution using cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH

Bitcoin to US dollar

“The problem of financial instability doesn’t originate with professional athletes,” he said. 

“It starts with the community that we come from. I spent the last year trying to understand why the wealth gap in America exists. And, really what it boils down to is a  systemic problem. The system is not aligned with the interests of the people.”

What is your sentiment on ETH/USD?

4089.39
Bullish
or
Bearish
Vote to see Traders sentiment!

Company aims to educate

Both situations, he felt, resulted largely because Blacks lacked the financial literacy and knowledge to build savings. 

As a result, Carlisle has teamed up with current and former pro athletes to launch the Players Company, which aims to educate people on finance and enable sports stars and others to invest in the firm and its digital tokens, which will be launched this summer. 

Plans call for people who complete the company’s courses to be rewarded with tokens under a learn-to-earn program. 

Eventually, tokens can be converted to other cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ether, the coin backed by the Ethereum blockchain network, through crypto exchanges like Coinbase.

Ethereum to US dollar

 

Token serves as aligner

The Players Company investors will be able to buy, sell, and swap the tokens on the open market. Other people will eventually be able to trade tokens regardless of whether they acquire equity or participate in the courses. 

By building the value of the token and creating an economic benefit, said Carlisle, investors will also create a social benefit by helping a previously marginalized community build wealth.

“I look at the token as an aligner – it just aligns my interests with your interests,” he said.

ETH/USD

4,089.39 Price
+5.870% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 1.75

BTC/USD

101,806.10 Price
+2.840% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 50.00

XRP/USD

2.40 Price
+2.570% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.01197

DOGE/USD

0.44 Price
+1.090% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.0021964

 

Digital bank coming

The Players Company is slated to launch a licensed digital bank in a partnership with Blue Ridge Bank this summer. It has also created a digital autonomous organization (DAO) that will make collective decisions on the organization’s future.

1,000 members

Carlisle said the DAO’s community now has about 1,000 members.

“Using tokens, using a DAO simply is a means to align the system with the interests of the people,” said Carlisle, who serves as chief DAO officer. 

“Right now, we've seen a lot of these communities. They're very self-preferential where it's crypto governing crypto. This is really using crypto as a tool to reorientate an existing system.”

American Football player Richard ShermanOutspoken NFL star Richard Sherman is a co-founder of the Players Company. (Photo: Getty Images)

Learn-to-earn program going global

Token holders could eventually use their digital assets to purchase investment plans, loans, mortgages, and other financial products. 

Initially, the learn-to-earn program and digital bank will only be available in the US, but plans call for them to be rolled out to other countries.

“The banking piece is going to take time to expand to other countries just from a regulation standpoint,” said Carlisle. “However, from a core learn-to-earn standpoint, we can offer – and we will offer – that outside of the US. Not initially. We'll build toward offering that, as fast as we can, on a global scale.”

Learn to earn is simply the latest iteration of Web3's development, which initially focussed on play to earn video games, and turbo charged AVAX's price in 2021. 

AVAX to US dollar

Token holders to direct program

Decisions on what investment products and services to launch will be made by token holders. 

“There are going to be some great decisions,” said Carlisle. “There are going to be some bad decisions. However, we're doing it together. That's really what the most important piece is: How can we win together?”

Markets in this article

AVAX/USD
Avalanche / USD
52.8205 USD
1.0784 +2.090%
AVAX/USD
Avalanche / USD
52.8205 USD
1.0784 +2.090%
BTC/USD
Bitcoin / USD
101806.10 USD
2811.35 +2.840%
ETH/USD
Ethereum / USD
4089.39 USD
226.66 +5.870%

Rate this article

Related reading

The difference between trading assets and CFDs
The main difference between CFD trading and trading assets, such as commodities and stocks, is that you don’t own the underlying asset when you trade on a CFD.
You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you. However, with traditional trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares or the commodities for money, and you own this until you sell it again.
CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position. But with traditional trading, you buy the assets for the full amount. In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks, for example.
CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades (unless you use 1-1 leverage), which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities. Stocks and commodities are more normally bought and held for longer. You might also pay a broker commission or fees when buying and selling assets direct and you’d need somewhere to store them safely.
Capital Com is an execution-only service provider. The material provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be understood as investment advice. Any opinion that may be provided on this page does not constitute a recommendation by Capital Com or its agents and has not been prepared in accordance with the legal requirements designed to promote investment research independence. While the information in this communication, or on which this communication is based, has been obtained from sources that Capital.com believes to be reliable and accurate, it has not undergone independent verification. No representation or warranty, whether expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy or completeness of any information obtained from third parties. If you rely on the information on this page, then you do so entirely at your own risk.

Still looking for a broker you can trust?

Join the 660,000+ traders worldwide that chose to trade with Capital.com

1. Create & verify your account 2. Make your first deposit 3. You’re all set. Start trading