Veteran Christian song trio Selah launched its own cryptocurrency fan token via the Rally platform on Tuesday.

Following the grouping's latest anthology debuting at number one on the iTunes Christian music nautical chart, the 3CR8 token will requite fans access to exclusive benefits such equally private messages, video chats and signed merchandise.

Selah, meaning "intermission" in Hebrew, is a true giant of the Christian music genre, notching upwardly 4 million albums sold and 10 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards in over two decades of making music.

Step Into My Story is the trio's 16th anthology release and the first on its own 3Cre8tive tape label, after which the tokens were named.

At launch, fans will be able to spend $200 worth of 3CR8 tokens on a live ten-minute video call with a ring member, $150 of tokens on a personalized greeting, or $20 to purchase a signed album on compact disc.

While the 3CR8 token is designed to promote fan engagement, Selah understands that cryptocurrency is more than than just a marketing tool, as singer Todd Smith explained:

"I grew up in Congo, Africa, where my family founded the Laban Bible Institute and started a medical dispensary, a women'southward literacy plan, and a far-reaching radio station. Having witnessed firsthand the strangling devastation of economic inequality, the equalizing potential of cryptocurrency and its power to remove suppressive financial barriers, globally, is thrilling."

Rally is an open platform allowing creators to launch their own cryptocurrencies minted on a private Ethereum sidechain. Pricing and supply for each "creator coin" are determined by a token bonding curve, significant that the more than coins exist, the more expensive those coins go.

Minting a social token costs the creator nothing, and the employ of a private sidechain allows the platform to implement features such as fiat on-ramps.

Rally co-founder Mahesh Vellanki told Cointelegraph that the vast bulk of creators and fans don't use crypto at all, so this solution simplifies the onboarding process to help bring more users into crypto:

"There volition be a pocket-size minority of crypo-native users who will want to mint their own ERC-twenty token straight on Ethereum so that it'due south maximally trustless and they tin can experiment with complete command, but that is non Rally'southward target market."

Fans can buy a creator's coin with credit or debit cards or cryptocurrency. Tokens can be redeemed either for creator-themed merchandise and experiences or for the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC).

Selah claims to exist the first creative person in the Christian music genre to launch its own cryptocurrency.

However, while the potential to expose a whole new swath of music fans to cryptocurrency is ever welcome, Selah has some fashion to go if information technology wants to top Akon.

The U.S.-Senegalese musician and rapper, who credits his success to his Muslim religion, has likewise launched his own cryptocurrency. Although, rather than merchandise and personal messages, Akoin will be used to power the futuristic Akon City being developed in Senegal.