The AFA tokenizes football at Devconnect Buenos Aires: Argentina inaugurates the Web3 era of sports

Buenos Aires, October 2025 – The city is preparing to host, for the first time, the World Ethereum Fair. From November 17 to 22, Devconnect Buenos Aires will transform La Rural into the global epicenter of decentralized technology.

Organized by the Ethereum Foundation, the event will bring together thousands of developers, artists, and companies to discuss innovation, art, and the future of the digital economy.

Among the major announcements, two milestones of regional impact stand out: the adoption of blockchain by the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and the launch of Argentine nanosatellites powered by artificial intelligence and art.

AFA and WIN: Argentine football is tokenized

In the context of ETHCon Argentina 2025 -the local Ethereum conference with free entry and 100% in Spanish- the president of the AFA, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, will participate in a panel organized by WIN (Web3 Innovation Network), the pioneering startup that tokenizes professional players and allows fans to invest in the transfer market through the blockchain.

WIN, the first Argentine fintech to apply decentralization to sports, is already operating in nine countries in Latin America and has more than 20 tokenized clubs and 220 players, including Lionel Messi, Alexis Mac Allister, Nicolás González, and Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez.

The panel will serve to highlight the historic agreement signed in February between the AFA and WIN, which makes Argentina the first federation in the world ( among the 211 that make up FIFA) to institutionalize a financing solution based on blockchain technology.

Tapia summarized the vision with a powerful phrase:

“Argentine football is once again a pioneer. With this alliance, we open a new era of innovation, transparency, and inclusion in the sport”.

The initiative aims to democratize investment in players and create a bridge between fans, clubs, and decentralized financing.

AI Space: art, science and blockchain heading to space

Another of the highlighted announcements will be that of AI Space, an Argentine capital company founded in Silicon Valley by Diego Favarolo, which combines artificial intelligence, decentralized infrastructure, and open hardware to build a blockchain-based space computing network.

In the coming weeks, AI Space will launch its first constellation of computing nodes into orbit with the Aventura I rocket, designed by the national startup Tlon Space.

The launch, from the Malacara Space Port in Lobería (Buenos Aires), will include a unique artistic intervention: the fuselage will be painted with “Luna”, the iconic figure of the artist Eugenio Cuttica, which will travel to the stratosphere as a symbol of the union between technology and art.

The company will feature the participation of Roland Coelho (CalPoly), creator of the Cubesat standard, and plans a lunar mission alongside a certain space company in 2027.

“We believe that the Space Economy is 100% crypto. Space will be the next territory for decentralized innovation,” said Favarolo.

Buenos Aires, epicenter of Web3 innovation

For six days, Devconnect Buenos Aires will bring together more than 15,000 participants in over 40 activities, including conferences, hackathons, workshops, and collaborative spaces. The presence of figures such as Vitalik Buterin, Santiago Palladino, Federico Ast, and Santiago Siri is expected.

The objective is clear: to position Latin America as a global innovation hub in Web3. And Argentina, with the tokenization of football as its flagship case, is already starting to play its most important match in the digital economy.