0% read
Last updated:
Chiliz (CHZ)
Chiliz is a sports-and-entertainment technology company and ecosystem whose active development began in early 2018. Its founder is Alexandre Dreyfus. The ecosystem includes Chiliz Chain, a public EVM-compatible Layer 1; Socios.com, a consumer fan-engagement platform; and CHZ, a token used on Ethereum and Chiliz Chain.[27][28]
Overview
The Chiliz ecosystem comprises Chiliz Chain, Socios.com and Fan Tokens. Chiliz Chain is its public EVM-compatible Layer 1 and the infrastructure for sports and entertainment applications. Socios.com is a consumer fan-engagement platform where fans can acquire Fan Tokens associated with sports and esports organizations and participate in team-specific activities. CHZ is the ecosystem’s token: it is an ERC-20 asset on Ethereum and the native token of Chiliz Chain, where it is used for gas, staking and delegation, and network operations.[28][16][13]
History
Chiliz and Socios.com held six Fan Token Offerings over six days beginning December 9, 2020. The offerings were for Sint-Truidense V.V. (STV), İstanbul Başakşehir F.K. (IBFK), Team Alliance (ALL), Natus Vincere (NAVI), BSC Young Boys (YBO) and Novara Calcio (NOV).[4]
Binance announced a Launchpool campaign offering PSG and Juventus Fan Token rewards from December 15, 2020 to January 14, 2021. Users could stake BNB, BUSD or CHZ in separate pools to receive the rewards.[14]
On January 18, 2021, Chiliz partnered with A.C. Milan to launch the ACM Fan Token. The announcement said the addition brought the number of sporting organizations on the Chiliz blockchain to 20.[2][5]
Chiliz Chain’s public mainnet launched on May 10, 2023 as an EVM-compatible Layer 1 focused on sports and entertainment applications.[18]
As of 2023, Chiliz said it provided more than 170 major sporting organizations with opportunities to connect with and reward fans through the Socios.com app. That year, the public Chiliz Chain opened the ecosystem to brands building Fan Tokens, NFTs and other digital assets, with fees paid in CHZ.[3][1]
In 2024, the Dragon8 upgrade introduced Tokenomics 2.0, EIP-1559-style type-2 transactions, improved EVM and Solidity support, and transaction-fee burning. Its inflation schedule began at an annual rate of 8.80%, declining to 1.88% after 14 years.[19]
The attempted Dragon8 activation on May 21, 2024 caused a material outage. The chain stopped after 37 blocks when nondeterministic floating-point inflation calculations across validators disrupted consensus. Validators rolled back the blocks and restored consensus by May 22; Dragon8 was subsequently activated on June 17, 2024.[20]
The Pepper8 upgrade was applied on August 27, 2025. It integrated Paribu Net into Chiliz Chain, deprecated PRB and migrated user balances to CHZ. It also added migration supply and revised the near-term inflation path, with the schedule converging to Dragon8’s from year 8 onward.[21]
Snake8 activated on October 14, 2025. It changed validator block-production probability to be proportional to delegated CHZ while retaining a minimum selection frequency for active validators.[22]
A June 2026 chain update adopted Cancun
- and Pectra-related Ethereum features, including blob transactions and EIP-7702 account-abstraction support. The update also included transaction batching, sponsored gas, fee abstraction and social-recovery primitives.[23]
On August 27, 2026, Chiliz announced proposed Socios Equity Tokens representing structured economic interests associated with minority stakes acquired by Chiliz Group in participating clubs. The company described them as regulated securities distinct from Fan Tokens’ utility and engagement functions. Clubs, terms, eligibility and timing remained subject to announcement and approvals.[17]
Products
Socios.com is the consumer fan-engagement platform in the Chiliz ecosystem. It enables fans to acquire digital Fan Tokens associated with sports and esports organizations and provides team-specific engagement functions. Chiliz Chain is the public blockchain infrastructure; CHZ is used within the ecosystem and is distinct from the Fan Tokens issued for individual organizations.[28][13]
Chiliz’s selected Socios.com partners have included FC Barcelona, Juventus F.C., Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Atlético Madrid, A.S. Roma, Galatasaray S.K. and OG.[13]
Voting
A Fan Token may provide eligibility to vote in polls published by its associated team. Users can vote in a club poll only if they own that club’s Fan Tokens. Teams set their poll questions, and the voting functionality is team-specific.[15][13]
Fan Token Offerings
A Fan Token Offering (FTO) is the initial sale of a team’s Fan Tokens on Socios.com. A Fan Token is sold at a fixed price during its first offering; its price can vary with demand afterward.[13]
Trading Fan Tokens
Fan Tokens are digital assets that may be traded on Socios.com or supported third-party platforms. Their price may rise or fall with demand. A Fan Token is distinct from the voting privileges a team may associate with it; poll access and voting functionality vary by team.[13]
Multi-chain Expansion
On April 28, 2026, Chiliz announced plans to extend Fan Tokens beyond Chiliz Chain to Solana and Base using LayerZero’s omnichain token infrastructure. The announcement described unified token supply and the potential for wider distribution, liquidity and DeFi access. Chiliz said 10% of cross-chain token-sale revenue would be allocated to CHZ buybacks and burns. This was a planned expansion; not every token launch on Solana and Base had happened.[24]
Fan Token
A Fan Token is a digital asset associated with a sports or esports organization. A Fan Token may provide eligibility to vote in polls, but the available polls and functions vary by club.[6][13]
Selected historical examples of Fan Tokens include:
- Paris Saint-Germain F.C. (PSG)
- Juventus F.C. (JUV)
- West Ham United F.C. (WHU)
- OG (OG)
- A.S. Roma (ASR)
- Atlético Madrid (ATM)
- Galatasaray S.K. (GAL).[6]
ChilizX Wind-Down
Chiliz announced the wind-down of its centralized ChilizX exchange on September 24, 2024. Deposits were suspended on September 26, trading ceased on October 9, and the stated withdrawal period ran through November 22, 2024.[31]
Tokenomics
Token Distribution
The following table records the original allocation of Chiliz’s 8,888,888,888-CHZ supply as disclosed in the company proposal updated June 26, 2019. It is an original allocation, not a current circulating-supply breakdown.[27]
| Allocation | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Private-sale investors | 34.5% |
| Seed-round investors | 7.5% |
| Userbase reserve | 20% |
| Marketing programs | 15% |
| Strategic acquisitions | 15% |
| Chiliz and Socios team | 5% |
| Project advisors | 3% |
The proposal also disclosed original vesting terms: small bonus allocations in some private placements had 4–6-month vesting; team allocations vested over 36 months from listing; and advisor allocations vested over 18 months from listing. These are the proposal’s historical terms, not a current vesting schedule.[27]
CHZ Token
CHZ is used by fans to acquire Fan Tokens from organizations partnered with Socios.com. It is both an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and the native token of Chiliz Chain. On Chiliz Chain, CHZ is used for gas, staking and delegation, and network governance and operations.[3][16]
The original CHZ supply was 8,888,888,888. Dragon8 introduced an inflationary protocol model with fee burning: annual inflation began at 8.80% and declines to a 1.88% floor by year 14, while most gas fees are burned.[27][29]
Pepper8 added 845,315,193 CHZ in year 2 for the Paribu Net/PRB-to-CHZ migration. It revised the emissions path during years 3–7 so scheduled supply converges with the Dragon8 path in year 8.[29][21]
Protocol inflation is allocated 65% to validators and delegators, 10% to the community vault, liquidity pools and possible shared-security rewards, and 25% to ecosystem and operational distribution. These percentages describe issuance allocation, not current holder ownership.[29]
The official Chiliz supply API returned total supply of 10,586,328,222.025048581323083837 CHZ at block 38,839,143 on October 29, 2026. This is the API’s total-supply figure, not circulating supply.[30]
Technology and Architecture
Chiliz Chain is a public, EVM-compatible Layer 1 forked from BNB Smart Chain. It uses Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA), based on Parlia: a limited set of validators produces blocks, with validators elected through Chiliz Chain staking governance. CHZ is the chain’s native token, used for gas, cross-chain operations, staking and delegation. Separately, CHZ also exists as an ERC-20 asset on Ethereum.[16]
Historical Socios Sidechain
Before the public Chiliz Chain, Socios used a permissioned sidechain built with Ethereum and Solidity tooling. The sidechain hosted platform activity, including voting and trading, and used Proof of Authority (PoA), in which authorized nodes produced blocks rather than miners solving proof-of-work problems. It connected organizations on the permissioned chain to Ethereum Mainnet through tokens exchangeable with ERC-20 CHZ. Chiliz described the technology as a way to make voting rights an ownable commodity and to support direct fan funding and tokenization of organizations’ management arms:
we are able to create a direct ‘fan-funding’ solution for sports/ esports teams in the future, in addition to being able to tokenize the management arms of these organisations.[3]
The sidechain stored Socios platform activity in an auditable ledger. Chiliz adopted the permissioned-sidechain model to draw on Ethereum’s developer tools, smart contracts and open-source ecosystem while operating a separate network. The historical Socios architecture connected its permissioned sidechain with Ethereum through ERC-20 CHZ; current Socios voting or trading does not run on the old sidechain.[3]
Partnerships
Chiliz’s partnerships have included sports and esports organizations. Binance’s December 2020 announcement named FC Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Galatasaray, A.S. Roma, Atlético de Madrid, OG, NAVI and UFC among Socios.com partners at that time.[14]
On January 18, 2021, Chiliz partnered with A.C. Milan to launch the ACM Fan Token.[5]
On July 21, 2026, Socios.com, through Fan Token Management US, part of Chiliz Group, announced agreements with LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, Penn State and Texas A&M through Playfly Sports. The agreements were described as U.S. college Fan Token programs and as the first U.S. college Fan Token deployments. Chiliz Group set a target of 30 university department launches over 12 months, with first token launches planned before the end of 2026. The announced model was intended to provide fan access and engagement through Fan Tokens, with a portion of sales revenue supporting student-athletes through name, image and likeness (NIL) activations administered by Playfly Sports.[25]
Regulatory Developments
Socios Europe Services received authorization from Malta’s MFSA as a MiCA crypto-asset service provider on September 11, 2025, covering crypto-asset custody and administration, exchange, placement and transfer services. Socios.com’s crypto-asset services shifted to that entity on October 1, 2025. Chiliz also published a MiCA-compliant CHZ white paper. The authorization concerns crypto-asset services; polls, loyalty programs and third-party dApp access were distinguished from services covered by it.[26]
UEFA
In February 2022, the Union of European Football Associations, typically known as UEFA, signed a Global Licensing and Regional Sponsorship agreement with Socios.com. Socios.com has now become not only a Global Licensing Partner and the Official Licensed Product but also the Official Fan Token Partner of all UEFA competitions, which include majors like the Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, and UEFA Super Cup. In addition, Socios.com is also working as a Regional Sponsor of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup for the 2021–2024 cycle in the USA.[10][11][12]
Ballon d'Or
Chiliz-powered Socios.com partnered with the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony in November 2021. In September 2022, the organizations announced a partnership for a second consecutive year.[9][8]
Security Audits
The official Chiliz Chain audit documentation lists reviews of governance contracts, Fan Token contracts, the Chiliz Bridge and tokenomics.[32]
As of October 28, 2026, Trustblock’s compiled record listed eight audit reports from three firms and 45 findings. It recorded one critical finding as fixed and 16 findings as open across severities. These are the statuses in Trustblock’s third-party audit compilation.[33]
Fundraising
In 2018, Chiliz raised $66 million USD through a private placement which was used to build the world’s first fan engagement and rewards app, Socios.com.[3][7]
Team
Alexandre Dreyfus is the founder and CEO of Chiliz.[27][28]
See something wrong?
Official Website:
Social Profiles:
Founders:
Blockchains: