An anonymous letter reveals a business mess affecting Barça.

BarcelonaBarça's regulatory compliance department recently received an anonymous envelope. Inside, according to ARA, was a letter expressing a concern among several club employees. They had learned of a website using Barça's crest and name. to spread a memcoin (digital currency related to relevant figures that serves to feel part of a community without getting anything in return, beyond the same memcoin) called BarcaCoin, although there was no official agreement.

On the website of the Barça cryptocurrency ghost It was explained that it was "a project that is not yet officially affiliated with FC Barcelona." But it clarified that they were "in talks" with the Catalan entity. In fact, this newspaper reported in July that the American company LFG-B, linked to Jupiter, which had spread the Donald Trump memcoin, had made an offer to Barça, but that the talks had stopped for several reasons. The most important is that the creation of this Barça memcoin directly clashed with the existence of the fan token (a type of cryptocurrency linked to fans enjoying experiences from a sports entity) of Barça created by Socios.com, Barça's global sponsor and one of the main investors in Barça Produccions, the club's digital and audiovisual business.

The website is no longer operational.

This Monday morning, the BarcaCoin website (fcbarcacoin.com) was no longer operational (however, its X account, @fcbarcacoin, was). When consulted by ARA on the matter, official sources at Barça reported that "the regulatory and legal compliance departments initiated action against this website." Thus, it seems that the end of this strange adventure, which worried several club employees, is getting closer. They were concerned that the Barça brand was being used to promote a memcoin without official permission. This type of cryptocurrency has a volatile nature that causes the vast majority of experts to assure that there are no alleged scams.

BarcaCoin, apart from promoting the cryptocurrency on social media through its X account, also has a Telegram channel with 1,304 subscribers where it communicates more directly with its potential investors. But the actions taken by Barça's legal and regulatory compliance departments appear to have had their effect. Not only is the BarcaCoin website no longer operational, but new messages on X and Telegram have also stopped being posted. The last one on X dates back to August 20th, and the last one on Telegram to August 17th. On both platforms, the first message is dated June 25th. It was this one: "More than a Coin".

The conflict with Socios.com

As we mentioned before, the main reason why talks between Barça and the company LFG-B stopped when the latter made an offer to create the club's memcoin was the conflict of interest with Socios.com, a company that has had a lot of influence in Barça in recent years. Socios.com, linked to Chiliz, has a global sponsorship agreement with Barça and 18.96% of Barça Produccions, which Alexandre Dreyfus, the CEO of Socios.com, joined in June as a director. It is also the broadcaster of thefan tokenfrom Barça.As the ARA recently explained, the value of this Barça cryptocurrency has fallen significantly in recent times. From a peak of $51.50 (€43.90) on August 4, 2021, to the current $1.13 (€0.97).

The situations described occur in a context in which Barça Produccions (the audiovisual arm of the club), which during this year has absorbed Bridgeburg Invest (the digital arm), needs to justify its book value with new projects after suffering several defaults from investors. At the close of the 2023-2024 financial year, the club placed a warning on its financial statements because it considered that the asset value (€408 million in total) should be depreciated. It remains to be seen what the new auditor, Crowe, will think about this case at the close of the 2024-2025 financial year.