Liverpool’s NFT launch flops with only 5% sold in a week

Liverpool’s controversial move into the world of NFTs has not exactly gone to plan so far, with less than 9,000 of a possible 171,072 sold in a miserable first week.

The club’s decision to launch a collection of NFTs has been widely criticised by Liverpool supporters, who have seen it as a cynical attempt at exploiting fans.

Last week saw the release of 171,072 randomly generated ‘Hero’ tokens up for sale, while 24 unique ‘Legendary’ tokens were put up for auction through Sotheby’s.

There has been a relentless and desperate PR campaign to plug the collection to supporters, but it has been a less-than-impressive sales period since the launch on March 30.

According to the listing on Sotheby’s, at the time of writing only 8,574 ‘Hero’ tokens have been purchased, which is just five percent of the 171,072 available.

The ‘Hero’ tokens are priced at $75 (£57.20) each, meaning the general sale has raised just $643,050 (£490,277) so far – of which $64,305 (£49,028) will go to the LFC Foundation.

Furthermore, ahead of the auction’s close on Monday afternoon, the overall funds raised through the sales of 24 ‘Legendary’ images – of Jurgen Klopp and his first-team players – stand at $125,800 (£95,912).

Liverpool have pledged 50 percent of the ‘Legendary’ token sales to the LFC Foundation, meaning the club’s charity is so far due £96,984.

Though sales are due to run until 2pm BST on Monday, April 4, at time of writing, the club are only due to bring in £489,205 after their donations to the LFC Foundation.

However, that does not factor in the cost of producing the NFTs – both in terms of the artwork and the digital production – nor the commission due to Sotheby’s, advertising fees and other background work.

Prior to the launch of the LFC Heroes Club collection, Liverpool were projected to raise more than £8.5 million through sales.