THEY’RE not just investors. Some of them are collectors, too.
Andre Iguodala, currently of the Miami Heat, didn’t just put up his own money in the new digital collectible craze called NBA Top Shot. He spends it as well, buying his own “Moments” to be part of his personal collection.
“I bought my own Moment just because I felt like I had to have my own freaking Moment,” he told The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto. “So I’d probably call that out my favorite moment.”
If you haven’t heard about NBA Top Shot, take a moment to tap here and read the Spin.ph explainer on the new digital phenomenon. But in a nutshell, it’s the NBA’s take on the current NFT (non-fungible token) wave, where you buy digital ownership of various highlights, or what Top Shot calls Moments.
They’ve been likened to basketball cards, except in video form and powered by a blockchain process. And just today, Dapper Labs — the tech company behind NBA Top Shot — announced that it has closed a $305 million (or P14.7 billion) funding round.
Among these investors (led by the firm Coatue) are a who’s-who in hoops: Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, Alex Caruso, Klay Thompson, and Andre Iguodala, according to Insider’s Tim Levin. Lopatto adds JaVale McGee to the list as well. While the Pelicans' Josh Hart doesn't seem to be an investor, he's an avid collector within the platform, telling Lopatto that his screen time is “way up” because of NBA Top Shot.
Some MLB and NFL stars are also investors, as well as Ashton Kutcher and Will Smith.
The company's valuation is now around $2.6 billion, Insider writes, with an estimated $483 million in sales.
Lopatto’s article also goes in detail about the inner workings of NBA Top Shot.
For one, Moments need to be signed off by both the NBA and the NBA Players Association, before it’s minted on the blockchain. Once it’s sold, the sales profit from buying a pack of Moments (just like you’d buy a pack of basketball cards) is split between Dapper Labs, the NBA, and the NBA players. You can also buy packs from other people on Top Shot, in which case, the platform gets a 5 percent cut, which then gets divvied up into another three-way split.
“These are investments,” said one collector to Lopatto. “That LeBron that I bought for $208,000 was worth seven figures right away. And, that’s a big reason why I bought it.”
That collector, who, thanks to his LeBron purchase, currently holds the record for buying the most expensive Moment on Top Shot, added: “It’s not only about what the best company or best player is. It’s about understanding what’s baked into the price and what other people aren’t seeing.”
For all their esoteric workings, NFTs are currently rocking the world of art. Now, Top Shot hopes to mainstream the concept even further by taking it to the NBA.
And judging from the multimillion dollar investments (with millionaire stars) currently being poured into it, it looks like NBA NFTs are here to stay.
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