World’s Top Striking League Karate Combat Launches New Blockchain Platform, UP, to Engage Next-Gen Fans

Karate Combat, a global professional striking league, announces the launch of UP, a Layer 2 blockchain and crypto-native software licensing platform on Hedera. Early partners who sign up for UP will be able to license the technology for free in Q1 2025. 

The launch of UP and its accompanying technology arrives at a pivotal moment where fan engagement is becoming more critical and sports organizations are looking for ways to enhance interaction. Whether it’s fantasy sports, esports, or traditional sports leagues, new technology like blockchain can turn fans from just spectators to also stakeholders in the action. Similar examples include the NBA’s Top Shot platform, which has revolutionized fan interaction through NFTs, and European football clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, which use fan tokens for fan participation in club decisions.

“Fans are much more engaged in a sport if they have some financial upside - they’ll do research on athletes, they’ll find out their backstories, they’ll look up past stats…this is how super fandoms are made. Through crypto technology, we turned our passive fans into active participants by allowing them to interact with their favorite fighters and govern the league. By offering UP and our software stack “Up Only Gaming” made up of a native iOS, Android, web app for free, we’re pioneering a decentralized model that could reshape fan engagement and grow the ecosystem through grants to early partners,” said onlylarping, Karate Combat Co-Founder.

Partners will be able to launch or use their own tokens issued on any chain and access Karate Combat’s Up Only Gaming software stack by wrapping and staking their tokens to UP on Hedera during play. Karate Combat will also share its 100,000 players with builders on UP through the league’s questing modules.

UP is the new Launchpad for Fan-Driven Leagues 

The L2 blockchain UP plans to have its own token called $UP and the $UP treasury will seed a grants program to incentivize early builders on the Up Only Gaming software stack. 

Partner organizations will have an opportunity to receive grants and incentives. UP plans to launch its own token, $UP, in 2025. The $UP treasury will seed a grants program to incentivize early builders on the Up Only Gaming software stack. When the $UP token is launched, up to 30% of the tokens are expected to flow over time to $KARATE token stakers.

Together with Hedera 

The announcement of UP also marks the league’s renewal of its three-year partnership with the HBAR Foundation, securing continued support for blockchain development in sports and acting as the exclusive blockchain sponsor of Karate Combat. 

Ready to float into the future?

It’s time to go UP! Sign up as an early partner for first access: https://up.rodeo/