If you follow any financial news then you have likely heard of NFTs and the meteoric rise of the NFT market earlier this year. The last nine months have been astounding to witness as some of these NFTs have sold for millions of dollars. Now, many corporations and business entities are taking note, and the NBA also launched their own heavily successful NFT market, NBA Top Shot.
NBA Top Shot is Launched
While other sports leagues and teams have released their own simplistic NFTs over the past year or so, the NBA has undoubtedly created the most impressive and successful NFTs out of any sports organization thus far. They teamed up with Dapper Labs, a blockchain company known for their NFT products, to create NBA Top Shot and it launched in October 2020.
How Top Shot Works
For basketball fans, the NBA Top Shot market has become an extension of their love for the sport. Being able to own these incredible plays and moments and reflect on their collection is very special. Of course, others are looking at the potential to turn a small investment into a larger payout down the road.
For instance, when we refer to the NBA picks and parlays, we can see that Giannis Antetokounmpo is constantly discussed for his incredible talent. Being a young star on the rise, naturally, his NFTs are worth a lot and they will possibly be worth even more after he wins his first championship.
Of course, cryptocurrency and blockchain overall have been very exciting over the last few years and many people are looking to invest in crypto and this is one of the driving factors. However, there is alluring nostalgia involved as well. With sports NFTs, the objective is to recreate the magic that sports trading cards once had. These trading cards are fondly remembered by most fans and it’s easy to associate this concept with new products.
With NBA Top Shot, fans can buy and sell “moments,” essentially clips of their favorite basketball players shooting and dunking. These moments are minted on the blockchain where they cannot be duplicated or counterfeited. There are also two different ways to buy these moments.
First and most importantly, these moments can be found in different “packs” of various rarities that can be purchased for anywhere from $9 to $999 for some of the rarest “cards” in the game. You can also buy and sell your cards on an open marketplace with other card collectors.
NBA Top Shot is a Massive Success
NBA Top Shot came around at the right time to capitalize on this media hype. Thus far, there have been over one million estimated users on the platform. In addition to this, Draper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou has said that they have generated over $700 million in sales. The platform has been discussed heavily by numerous media outlets, bringing massive attention to the NBA overall.