Credit Suisse is launching Ethereum NFTs with the Swiss Football Association

Credit Suisse has partnered with the Swiss Football Association to launch an Ethereum-based NFT collection to support women's football in Switzerland.

The NFT collection consists of 756 digital art portraits of Swiss women's national team players and will be on sale from July 11 to August 31, according to information on Credit Suisse's website. The NFTs will be sold exclusively via Credit Suisse's CSX app.

"When we designed the offering, we consciously attempted to make it easy for the user to engage in the evolving NFT world," Daniel Gorrera, head of digital assets Switzerland at Credit Suisse, said in a statement shared with The Block. "This project also paves the way for the innovative use of digital assets in new types of financing and servicing models. Within this space, Credit Suisse is well positioned for issuing parties that are looking for regulated partners."

The news marks Credit Suisse's entrance into the NFT space. Earlier this year, Credit Suisse led a $65 million Series B funding round for Swiss digital asset infrastructure company Taurus — one month before the Swiss bank was forcibly sold to rival UBS Group for $3.2 billion by Swiss authorities amid collapse fears in March. Taurus is also the technological partner of Credit Suisse's NFT marketplace in its CSX app.

Specifically, Credit Suisse leverages Taurus-Capital for the issuance and lifecycle management of the Swiss Football Association NFTs and Taurus-Protect for the secure storage of the NFTs. Through Taurus's infrastructure, the NFTs have been deployed on the Ethereum blockchain network, according to the statement.

Credit Suisse leveraging Ethereum for the NFT offering 

The 756 NFTs are divided into three parts that include "unique" (1 NFT per player), "rare" (5 different NFTs per player) and "limited" (30 different NFTs per player). That way, the unique NFT collection will have a total of 11 NFTs, the rare collection will have a total of 55 NFTs and the limited collection will have a total of 690 NFTs. The unique collection is listed at a price of 10,000 Swiss francs (around $11,165) each, the rare collection at 3,500 Swiss francs apiece, and the limited collection at 150 Swiss francs each.

The physical works of art were created by Swiss artist Daniela Filippelli. Credit Suisse then minted the NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. Users looking to purchase the NFTs won’t need an external wallet or cryptocurrencies. Payment will be exclusively accepted in Swiss francs via a direct account debit and the NFTs will be stored in the CSX app.

Depending on the package, additional benefits such as physical artwork, signed jerseys, or exclusive meet-and-greet sessions with the players are also included in the NFT sale.

"Every purchase supports the promotion of women's football, with the entire net proceeds going to the national team players and selected projects to promote talented young female footballers," Credit Suisse said in a separate statement.