Celebrity and Olympic winner Caitlyn Jenner is set to auction her 1976 Olympic gold medal on the blockchain using the MEDAL token, launching Thursday, August 8.
The in-house team led by Caitlyn Jenner has developed a custom-built launchpad for the MEDAL token auction on the Base chain, providing individuals with the opportunity to own a digital fraction of Jenner’s Gold medal. Jenner came up with this innovative idea before this year’s Summer Olympics, seeking a creative approach to bridge the gap between physical and digital assets.
“Well, I have been in this space for almost a year now, and I'm constantly looking at new ways that I can help improve this space,” she said. “And here we have a real-world asset that is part of the Olympics and part of history.”
Jenner recalled the euphoric feeling of winning the Olympic decathlon as Bruce Jenner before transitioning to Caitlyn in 2015.
“It was my last meet. I knew I was retiring after that was over with because I had to give up too much to be there. And it was just an absolute feeling of satisfaction,” she said. “It just put a smile on my face. I climbed every mountain, I overcame every obstacle, and I was able to take on the world. And I won, physically took on the world. It was a very powerful feeling.”
The gold medal will be represented by an NFT (ERC-721) on the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, stored in a secure token vault, and fractionalized into a tradable ERC-20 token called MEDAL with a supply of 100,000,000. The ERC-721 smart contract "maps to the provable metadata of the legally binding contract signed by Caitlyn Jenner showing ownership of the real Olympic gold medal," stored on IPFS.
The rollout will be a “fair launch,” Jenner said, with the official website counting down to Thursday.
“There’s no starting price,” Jenner said. “We’re just gonna put it out there and see what happens, and let the market decide.”
“There’s never been an NFT of a gold medal digitally put out there for you to get involved with,” Jenner said. “It’s part of history.”
Jenner first entered the crypto industry in May with her JENNER coin on Ethereum, helping to start the summer’s celebrity meme coin trend. She said the gold medal NFT project will involve JENNER token holders in some respect but did not provide details.
“We are not going to let down all the JENNER coin holders whatsoever. The general people are going to hear a lot about it on Thursday,” she said. “We’re not leaving the JENNER coin people behind. I want everybody to be a winner when it comes to crypto, and especially involved with my coins and what I’m doing.”
Jenner said her coin—which, like many celebrity coins, is down sharply since its early summer peak—helps traders “diversify” their holdings. She’s committed to the crypto world despite market turmoil.
“I just want to help people out,” she said. “I just want everybody to do well.”
Jenner also announced she will be speaking at the next Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas in 2025, following last month’s event in Nashville that featured Donald Trump.
“I’m very excited. I have been in the speaking business pretty much all my life,” she said. “I want people to know that I’m in [crypto] for the long run.”
How Does Fractionalization Work?
The gold medal's ownership rights are minted on-chain with a 1-of-1 ERC-721 token, a non-fungible token containing legal proof of ownership, signed and sealed by Caitlyn Jenner. The ERC-721 contract is stored in a token vault, which allows the fractionalization of the medal into 100 million pieces/tokens. The vault enables anyone to own a piece of Olympic history.
The auction will take place on Caitlyn Jenner’s bespoke platform, developed by her team. This platform will host a fractionalized auction starting Thursday, August 8th at 11:00 AM EST and concluding Thursday, August 15th at 11:00 AM EST. During this period, participants can acquire fractional ownership of the Gold Medal through a transparent process on Base (an Ethereum Layer-2).
The tokenomics for the fractionalized tokens are:
- 55% — Custodian
- 25% — Community/Project Treasury
- 20% — Presale Raise
While there is no starting price, the potential value is massive, with some believing each token could be worth $100s of dollars.
This innovative project by Caitlyn Jenner bridges the gap between physical and digital assets, offering a novel way for fans and investors to own a piece of Olympic history.