VeChain, in an April 12 blog post, announced its plans to tokenize the gloves worn by UFC fighters and track their identities on the VeChainThor network. These gloves will be equipped with VeChain near-field communication (NFC) chips that will record fight data and authenticate each pair. Following the fights, the athletes will donate and give away their gloves, turning them into highly sought-after collectors’ items. The NFC chips embedded in each pair will enable buyers to verify the authenticity of the gloves through a VeChainThor network smart contract. The gloves will be first worn by fighters at UFC 300, which is scheduled for April 13.
The primary aim of this system, as stated by VeChain, is to combat fraud in the secondary market, which is a common concern for buyers who wish to possess gloves worn during specific fights. This innovative concept incorporates elements of VeChain’s ToolChain system, a supply-chain management system utilized by various enterprises to track items and ensure they reach their intended recipients.
VeChain also revealed that an initial collection of 12 exclusive gloves will be presented to A-list celebrities, including Joe Rogan. UFC CEO Dana White will make a live announcement to reveal this partnership. On VeChain’s Reddit board, holders of the VeChainThor (VTHO) token had mixed reactions to this news. Some were thrilled about the network’s new application, with one user, pez86, exclaiming, “[W]e’re going to be minting rwa [real-world asset] gloves as [non-fungible tokens] every UFC event!” Another user, VETterDaysAhead, viewed the announcement positively and expressed hope for QR code scanning during televised events, which would consume VTHO.
However, not everyone was impressed. Some users believed that the gloves would not consume enough VTHO through transaction fees to have a significant impact on the price. In a sarcastic response to another user’s complaint about the exaggerated announcement, tkim91321 remarked, “Hey man, that’s like a whole 10 VTHO burned per year. UFC gonna topple Walmart China in usage.” Tkim91321 further explained their stance in another post, questioning, “And this would burn how many VTHO per month?” and concluded, “Nothing materially significant.”
As of April 12, Coinmarketcap data showed VeThor’s market cap to be over $283 million, positioning it as one of the top 300 cryptocurrencies globally. In May 2022, the network’s foundation had $1.2 billion in its treasury. The VeChain Foundation established its partnership with UFC in June of the same year, signing a $100 million sponsorship deal with the mixed martial arts promotion.