WAGMI United: Who are Crawley Town's new owners? What happened with Bradford City? What is cryptocurrency? What are NFTs?

After weeks of speculation. the American investment group have taken over the reins of the Reds from Turkish steel magnate Ziya Eren.

Here is all you need to know about Crawley Town's new owners.

Who are WAGMI United?

The group is headed by sports gambling analyst Preston Johnson and co-founder Eben Smith, a trader who has moved from derivatives to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). They will become directors of Crawley Town. They deal in data cryptocurrency and NFTs. The is also believed to include businessman Daryl Morey, president of National Basketball Association side Philadelphia 76ers, businessman Gary Vaynerchuk and TikTok personality Bryce Hall among others.

The Athletic stated: "WAGMI United is a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), a group governed by computer coding — usually in the form of crypto tokens. Anyone who holds these tokens can vote on matters related to the DAO. The decisions are carried out by automated contracts. No middlemen, no bosses."

WAGMI United have a website that states on the home page 'Crypto's Road to the Premier League'. On the website there is a contact page and a link to their channel on Discord - a messaging platform popular with cryptocurrency traders and gamers.

What is their business model and ambitions?

When they were in talks to buy Bradford City in December 2021, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus reported: "Under the WAGMI United plan, online investors and fans all over the world could purchase “a piece of the team” in the form of digital collectibles such as videos, photos or characters."

Eben Smith told the Washington Post that the group would be “starting from scratch” – which would allow them to be “riskier in what you allow your brand to become. Then you can work with your community to figure out what it is together.”

The Yorkshire Post said: "Cryptocurrency is a controversial topic within football because it relies on a market which is hugely volatile and unregulated. Some clubs sell virtual "fan tokens" to bring in revenue, but WAGMI suggested they intended to go further as part of ambitious plans to buy a lower-league football club and take it into the Premier League."

The i's chief football writer Daniel Storey wrote on December 16: "On the face of it, and if you squint to avoid the deep set environmental, ethical and financial concerns about the rise of cryptocurrency, you can just about make a case for this as an ambitious ownership model. Rather than shares, supporters would own an NFT that they might generously interpret as a piece of their club. The WAGMI United group would then use the capital raised to fuel the club’s progress (they are particularly keen to invest in data analytics)."

What happened when WAGMI United put in an offer to buy Bradford City?

In mid-December 2021, in mid-December Bantams owner Stefan Rupp revealed he had received an email bid from WAGMI offering to buy the League Two club. The offer was rejected days later when Rupp took account of the backlash in some quarters to the plans.

In a statement, Rupp said: “On Thursday I received an offer from the WAGMI United group to purchase the football club. This has been rejected. A great deal has been aired publicly since the offer was made. This, as well as a number of factors which will remain private, has led me to this decision. As a proud custodian of this wonderful football club, my first and most important responsibility is to protect it and safeguard its long-term future, while upholding our values."

The Bradford Telegraph and Argus reported: "WAGMI United issued a response to say they were “bitterly disappointed” with Rupp�