40 Tournaments Per Year, 700 Million Viewers: How Fight.ID Is Leading Global Esports into Web3

Source: TechFlow (Shenchao)

Customer acquisition anxiety for Web3 projects is nothing new.

Users disappear after airdrops, KOL pumps lose steam in under three days, and addresses acquired at tens of dollars each might just be bots. Everyone’s searching for “sustainable user growth,” yet most projects still default to throwing more money and tokens at the problem.

Actually, sports fans represent a promising user acquisition vector.

They have strong emotional loyalty, stable engagement cycles, and natural activation points like seasons, tournaments, and transfer windows. A few projects experimented with football fan economies years ago, but the Fan Token path hasn’t produced any breakout success stories.

Recently, a new project is testing the fan economy model—this time in combat sports.

Fight.ID is an official partner of UFC, the world’s largest mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, hosting over 40 events annually and reaching 700 million viewers globally. Its token $FIGHT completed a public sale raising nearly $200 million last October, with TGE approaching.

But just recently, the team made a surprising move: It announced a full 100% refund of all funds raised during its ICO, plus an additional airdrop of 85 million tokens (0.85% of total supply) to early supporters.

In other words, everyone who participated in the ICO gets their principal back—and earns free tokens on top.

This move is rare in the industry. Refunding nearly $200 million signals the team isn’t cash-strapped and wants to ensure TGE allocations go primarily to the community rather than being locked up by early investors.

On January 22, Binance Alpha confirmed $FIGHT listing, and Coinbase recently added it to its listing roadmap.

While most projects today are still trying to extract money from communities, Fight.ID is doing the opposite—putting money back into users’ pockets.

Will this approach earn trust and drive participation? With Binance Alpha already confirming the January 22 launch and Coinbase showing interest, the market is delivering its first feedback.

Meanwhile, combat sports rank among America’s most popular sports, offering a solid user base. Can this model succeed, and what value does the token actually unlock?

Securing UFC’s On-Chain IP, Aligning Fighter Incentives

The value of UFC’s IP license lies in its use cases.

With over 40 annual events, every broadcast, live event, and social media post becomes a distribution channel. Securing the IP means Fight.ID can ride UFC’s event calendar—launching campaigns, publishing content, and driving users without paying for traffic. It’s like leasing a constantly running user acquisition engine.

Concept Labs secured this license due to prior collaboration.

In 2022, it took over UFC Strike—a Dapper Labs-originated NFT project centered around fighter likenesses—and has operated it since.

The project also features an innovative Athlete Committee.

Rather than just photo ops, active UFC fighters participate in governance. Members include ranked fighters like Gilbert Burns, Alexandre Pantoja, and Dan Ige. Their responsibilities include reviewing product features and deciding how prize pools are distributed.

Fighters are compensated in tokens, vested over time based on participation—no work, no full payout. The intent is clear:

To create real skin-in-the-game, not just a one-off endorsement deal.

On funding, Concept Labs closed a private round in September 2025 from backers including Aptos Foundation, Jupiter, and Memeland—amount undisclosed.

Every UFC Fight Is a User Onboarding Gateway

With IP rights and event exposure secured, the next challenge is converting viewers into on-chain users.

Fight.ID uses a three-layer architecture to achieve this.

At the base is Fight.ID itself—an on-chain identity. Once registered, users can leverage this ID across platforms and activities.

Above that sits FP (Fight Points), a non-transferable reputation score. Users earn FP by engaging: watching fights, playing prediction games, buying digital collectibles, or participating in community discussions.

At the top is the $FIGHT token, whose utilities are tightly linked to FP: staking rewards scale with FP tier, and access to certain athlete communities requires minimum FP thresholds.

The design logic is straightforward: use the fan economy loop effectively.

First, leverage UFC events to attract users. Second, use FP to encourage sustained engagement by giving users clear earning incentives. Finally, enable token utility that monetizes FP value.

Each UFC fight becomes a funnel entry point—not just a one-off marketing moment.

From a cost perspective, this model offers another advantage:

Much of the user acquisition cost is offloaded onto UFC’s existing content and event operations. UFC already produces broadcasts, runs social media, and hosts events—Fight.ID essentially rides that wave. Compared to paid ads, this cost structure is far more sustainable.

Of course, the real test is data. Fortunately, an event in December 2025 provided an early data sample.

60,000 Digital Collectibles Sold Out in 4 Hours

On December 7, 2025, Fight.ID launched a digital collectible campaign tied to a weekly UFC event via Telegram.

The offer: purchase a UFC Strike collectible pack and earn FP in return. While sports-based fan economies may seem niche, the results were impressive.

According to official figures, all 60,000 packs sold out within four hours, generating $4.5 million in sales from approximately 20,000 buyers, with over 600,000 on-chain transactions. During the event, Fight.ID ranked as the fourth most active social DApp on BNB Chain.

Considering the crypto bear market context, these numbers are solid—and reflect UFC’s brand strength.

Still, it’s important to note: $FIGHT’s TGE hasn’t occurred yet. This was essentially a pre-TGE warm-up and user accumulation phase.

One event isn’t definitive proof—results can’t be linearly extrapolated to future events. How many of the 20,000 buyers were motivated by potential airdrop expectations? No public data exists.

Additionally, the campaign leveraged Telegram Gifts’ traffic. Telegram has been actively promoting NFT gifting, and UFC Strike was featured as a flagship partner, benefiting from platform-level promotion.

For context: the original UFC Strike project ran for over two years, selling over $20 million in digital collectibles and accumulating 110,000 wallet addresses.

This single December event generated $4.5 million—over 20% of that historical total. Even accounting for TGE hype, the conversion efficiency suggests the event-driven model works—at least in early stages.

Now comes the next question: once users are onboarded, how does the token capture their activity?

$FIGHT Breakdown: 57% to Community, Utility Tied to Reputation

First, the basics.

$FIGHT is a Solana-native token with a 10 billion supply. Public sale price: $0.05, implying a FDV of ~$500 million. Circulating supply at TGE will be around 20%.

Allocation-wise, 57% goes to the community—the largest share. Investors get 17.5%, team 15%, liquidity 6.5%, advisors 4%. Team, investor, and advisor portions are subject to a 12-month lockup, followed by linear vesting over 18–24 months. So, no major sell pressure for the first year, but gradual unlocks begin thereafter.

The allocation is fairly standard for Web3 projects—community share is decent but not exceptional. The real question is whether utility design creates genuine demand.

Here are $FIGHT’s key utility scenarios.

First: Staking and Fighter Communities. Users stake $FIGHT to join exclusive on-chain fan clubs for specific athletes, unlocking perks like behind-the-scenes content, AMAs, priority merch access, and VIP viewing parties.

Key details: higher community membership increases entry staking thresholds, favoring early adopters; joining fees and revenue are shared between existing members and the DAO treasury; users with higher FP tiers receive boosted yields and priority access.

This mechanism locks tokens within communities. Each UFC fight week could bring new members, pushing up entry costs and generating more fees.

Second: Partner Ecosystem Access, which the team calls a core utility. Third-party partners who want to reach Fight.ID’s user base must spend $FIGHT to purchase FP distribution quotas, then distribute FP to users via tasks, challenges, or events. It’s a B2B model:

Partners pay for attention, users earn FP, and $FIGHT becomes the ecosystem’s access currency. As Fight.ID’s user base grows, more partners will pay to engage this identity-verified, reputation-scored audience—creating ongoing token demand.

Third: Real-world and applications. FightGear is a clothing brand launching limited-edition co-branded and event-themed apparel, with $FIGHT holders getting early access and payment options. PrizeFight is an on-chain prize pool funded by sponsors, community, and DAO contributions, rewarding standout fight performances and fan engagement—all denominated in $FIGHT. UFC Strike NFTs will continue operating and eventually integrate with the Fight ecosystem, allowing holders to accelerate FP accumulation.

On governance, $FIGHT holders can vote on treasury allocations, emission schedules, and ecosystem grants. All revenue generated from utility use flows into the DAO treasury to support growth.

Will it work? Too early to say definitively.

Real-world engagement in fighter communities and actual demand from ecosystem partners remain unproven. But from a design standpoint, $FIGHT isn’t a “buy-and-ignore” token—it’s deeply tied to the FP reputation system, compelling holders to stay active.

A New Path for Fan Tokens

Placing Fight.ID in broader context, it’s tackling a long-standing question: how should sports fan economies work in Web3?

Since 2019, Chiliz and Socios have issued Fan Tokens for football clubs like Barcelona, Juventus, and PSG. The model: buy tokens to vote on minor decisions—jersey colors, walkout music, etc.

Over time, the flaws became obvious: voting rights are too shallow. After casting a vote, fans have little reason to stay engaged. They either HODL hoping for price gains or exit early—no incentive for sustained participation.

Fight.ID attempts a different angle. Here’s a clear comparison:

Design-wise, Fight.ID adds a layer beyond traditional Fan Tokens: it doesn’t just sell tokens—it builds identity, cultivates reputation, then enables tokenized value capture.

This “identity-reputation-token” three-tier structure pulls users from “buy-and-leave” into a loop of “continuous participation.”

It’s an evolution of Web3 sports fandom—a directional bet whose validity will be tested by Q1 product launches and user metrics.

Returning to the original question: can an event-driven user acquisition model work?

Fight.ID’s answer is a multi-pronged strategy: leverage UFC’s IP for exposure, use a three-layer architecture to convert and retain users, and tie token utility to reputation to enforce holder activity.

For interested participants, here are key validation milestones to watch:

Near-term (Jan–Feb): Binance Alpha listing on January 22, TGE execution, and progress on Coinbase listing review. This is the first test of liquidity and price discovery.

Q1 2026: Launch of staking with FP multiplier bonuses and leaderboards, rollout of Partner Ecosystem Access (partners start burning $FIGHT to distribute FP), PrizeFight prize pool activation, and $FIGHT-enabled payments for goods and tickets. This is the critical utility validation window.

Q2 2026: Second round of UFC Strike Telegram airdrops, expanded exchange listings, and routine integration with seasonal events. This will reveal whether the acquisition model is sustainable.

Q3–Q4 2026: Scaling of Fighter Communities (dynamic entry pricing + member dividends), FightGear apparel collaborations, and partnerships with real-world MMA gyms. This marks the pivotal phase for moving the ecosystem from online to offline.

Combat sports are among America’s most popular, with UFC’s 40+ annual events and 700 million viewers providing a massive foundation.

If Fight.ID can convert even 1% of those viewers into on-chain users, that scale alone could sustain a vertical ecosystem.

Past Web3 fan economy attempts mostly stopped at “issue token, raise money.” Fight.ID aims to go further—to turn fans into active participants and events into perpetual user engines.

The direction is promising. Execution will tell the truth.