Even as the crypto market suffers, NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are still raking in staggering amounts of money. OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, broke its record for a month last week with sales of $3.5 billion so far in January – just halfway through the month.
And one early NFT collection in particular has resurfaced in the last 30 days: NBA-Top-Shot, the licensed NBA “Moments” on the Dapper Labs Flow blockchain.
In the NFT world, PFP (profile picture) collections like Bored Apes, Meebits and World of Women get the most hype and headlines. But NBA top shot was widely seen like the series tThis started the mainstream NFT craze in March of last year. Then, last June, the NFT market collapsed, and by the time NFTs rebounded in August after being declared dead, Top Shot had lost its luster. Many people deep in the NFT community considered Top Shot to be “NFT lite” as it was specifically aimed at attracting normies and enabling dollar purchases.
Now it looks like there’s going to be a comeback, and it could be thanks to NBA star Kevin Durant.
The secondary market sales of the collection are up 72% to $53.8 million over the past 30 days, according to CryptoSlam data.
This week, NBA Top Shot launched a new TV and social media promotional campaign featuring Durant, offering a free Durant NFT “Moment” to first-time buyers of the Top Shot package. For Durant, it’s his latest in a string of crypto moves: He’s also signed up as an ambassador for Coinbase, which he had previously invested in — and Coinbase became the NBA’s official crypto exchange in October.
Meanwhile, Dapper Labs, the company behind the NFT collection, has branched out beyond basketball.
This weekend, Dapper Strike will be releasing Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) NFT collectibles. coined on Dapper’s own Flow blockchain and revolves around video footage of UFC events, similar to NBA Top Shot.
Dapper Labs also announced in September its long-awaited NFL version of Top Shot, NFL All Day, for release at the end of this NFL season. It remains to be seen if highlight-clip NFTs will be as popular with NFL fans as they are with NBA fans, but it’s clear that more sports leagues are likely to be knocking on Dapper’s door to get their own version up and running.
