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Neymar Jr stepped onto the pitch in the 76th minute of Brazil’s 3-0 win over Scotland at the 2026 World Cup, and the internet lost its collective mind. Former Peru international Jefferson Farfan, watching from his YouTube channel ‘Satelite+’, could barely contain himself as the Santos number 10 crossed himself, looked skyward, and jogged into the attack.
What the moment didn’t do: move any meaningful needle in the crypto world that once treated Neymar like a Web3 demigod.
## The ghost of Neymar’s crypto past
Rewind to January 2022. Neymar dropped roughly $1.12 million on two Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, paying 159.99 ETH for one and 189.69 ETH for the other.
Two months before those purchases, in November 2021, Neymar had signed an exclusive licensing deal with NFTSTAR, a platform operated by The9 Limited, to create and sell digital collectibles featuring his likeness.
Today, the BAYC floor price sits at a fraction of its 2022 highs. His NFTSTAR partnership has faded from public conversation. And the unofficial meme tokens that sprung up bearing his name across various blockchains? They collectively hold a valuation under $3,000. That’s not a typo. Three thousand dollars, combined, across every chain.
## The Santos FC Fan Token tells a quieter story
There is one crypto asset with a legitimate, structural connection to Neymar’s career: the Santos FC Fan Token (SANTOS). When news broke in early 2025 that Neymar was returning to his boyhood club, the token jumped 10.6% on centralized exchanges.
Neymar’s World Cup cameo against Scotland triggered no comparable reaction in SANTOS or any other token. No new endorsement was announced. No crypto partnership was unveiled alongside the appearance.
## What Neymar’s non-event means for sports crypto
In 2021 and 2022, athlete endorsements could single-handedly pump token prices. Tom Brady had FTX. Steph Curry had FTX. Neymar had his apes. The logic was simple: famous person touches crypto thing, crypto thing goes up. That trade worked until it catastrophically didn’t, and the rubble from FTX’s collapse made every celebrity-crypto pairing look like a liability rather than a catalyst.
Now, without a fresh endorsement deal, a new NFT collection, or any official Neymar-branded protocol tied to the World Cup, there’s simply no vehicle for speculative capital to ride the Neymar wave in crypto markets. The meme tokens are functionally dead. The fan token moves on club news, not international fixtures.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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