Soccer Legend Lionel Messi Applying His Magic Touch on Solana's TIMECOIN($TIME)

Global superstar Lionel Messi is adored by his fans for his speed, nimbleness, and his exceptional ability to put the ball in the net no matter where he is on the field. While Messi might be renowned in the soccer world as the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), it seems that Messi is struggling to find the same golden touch when it comes to the cryptomarket.

$TIME is heading to the moon! ⏱️

Messi just shared @timecoinsol in his story, reaching his 505 million followers. 🌕

DYOR/NFA. #partner #memecoin2024 #memecoin1000x pic.twitter.com/SklWbM6IWp<br/>— AldenKD⚡ (@alden_0x) July 28, 2024<br/> a

Recently, Messi just posted an instagram story of himself with the TIMECOIN mascot, suggesting an endorsement of this new cryptocurrency-$TIME.

The solana-based token made its market debut on July 24,2024. As of 29 July,2024, the price of Time stood at $0.000036, with a 24-hour trading volume of $6,106,824. Despite its 1.6% decrease in value over the past 24 hours, the token has gained a lot of attention thanks to the endorsement from the soccer superstar.

Time's value surged to an all time high of $0.00007954 on Saturday, 27 July, 2024, after the endorsement of the Soccer Superstar. But the price of the token dropped soon after, and the value has been spiralling downward ever since.

Messi's second miss on the cryptofield

This is Messi's second crypto endorsement that turns out to be a complete miss. Not long ago, the Inter Miami superstar also endorsed another Solana-based memecoin called Watercoin. Fans were eager to see if Messi could once again apply his magical touch on this memecoin, allowing it to defy the odds of becoming irrelevant just like many other celebrity-backed memecoins.

Although there was no confirmation from him or his team about the memecoin, Messi's alleged "endorsement" caused the value of WATER to skyrocket over 55% in just a few days. But eventually the hype of the coin fizzled out, and the value of the token now is 10% of what it was at its peak. Many analysts have pointed out that there are no bullish signs on the coin, suggesting that the token could struggle to recover from its epic downfall.

Not the first, and definitely not the last

Messi isn't the first and definitely isn't the last football player to be the face of some crypto advertisement. Cristiano Ronaldo signed a multi-year deal with Binance in 2022 to promote non-fungible tokens. Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappe similarly partnered with Sorare - a player owned fantasy sports game that utilises NFTs - to promote the platform. And Brazilian soccer star Neymar also dipped their toes in crypto space by acquiring two artworks from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection via the OpenSea platform.

Is sponsorship the reason why so many of these soccer superstars are so quick to share their latest crypto ventures on their social media? If this is the case, then can we really trust the coins they are investing in?

Messi's motivation

As of now, Messi has two ongoing agreements with various crypto companies. One of the deals is its $20 million agreement in 2022 with digital fan token company, Socios.com to promote the platform.

Messi also has also signed another deal with leading global cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitget.

While there are no reports of direct financial deals between Messi and Solana, I think it is plausible to assume that monetary gain could be one of the primary motivators for his enthusiastic promotion of Solana tokens. Given the lack of prior track record or potential of $TIME, Messi's fervent endorsement would be puzzling unless financial incentives are involved.

Maybe you would think that this method might not be sustainable from the business point of view, but I would like to argue otherwise. By using him to spotlight new tokens, Solana could indirectly use these advertisements to increase the platform's traffic. While the conversion rate of Messi's followers into investors might be low, it's conceivable that attracting non-solana users who admire the soccer star could be a valuable long-term strategy. This approach could serve as a gateway for Messi fans to explore Solana and potentially adopt the platform for cryptocurrency trading.

Ultimately, I think fans should take a more cautious approach and take these endorsements with a grain of salt. While Messi might have a way to do his magic on the field, not every crypto project that he touched would turn into gold. As an investor, you should always do your own due diligence before investing your money into these projects.