Even as the cryptocurrency market suffers, NFTs or non-fungible tokens are still accumulating mouth-watering amounts of money. OpenSea, the leading NFT market, broke its monthly record last week with $ 3.5 billion in sales in January so far, just in the middle of the month.
And one of the first NFT collections in particular is being reborn in the last 30 days: NBA high shot, the NBA “moments” licensed on the Dapper Labs Flow blockchain.
In the NFT world, PFP (profile picture) collections like Bored Apes, Meebits and World of Women are garnering most of the hype and headlines. But NBA Top Shot was widely seen like the t seriesHat started the traditional NFT craze in March of last year. Then the NFT market collapsed last June, and when NFTs surged again in August after being declared dead, Top Shot had lost its luster. Many people deep within the NFT community saw Top Shot as “NFT lite” as it was specifically aimed at attracting regular people and allowing for dollar purchases.
Now it looks like he’s coming back and may have to thank NBA star Kevin Durant.
Sales on the collection’s secondary market have increased 72% in the past 30 days, according to data from CryptoSlam, with $ 53.8 million in sales.
This week, NBA Top Shot launched a new TV and social media ad campaign featuring Durant and is offering buyers of the Top Shot package for the first time a free NFT “moment” of Durant. For Durant, it is his latest in a series of cryptocurrency promotions: he also signed up as an ambassador for Coinbase, in which he had previously invested, and Coinbase in October became the NBA’s official cryptocurrency exchange.
Meanwhile, Dapper Labs, the company behind the NFT collection, has branched out beyond basketball.
This weekend, Dapper will launch the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Strike NFT collectibles, coined on Dapper’s Flow blockchain and revolves around footage of UFC events, similar to NBA Top Shot.
Dapper Labs also announced in September its long-awaited NFL version of Top Shot, called NFL All Day, coming at the end of this NFL season. Whether the highlight clip NFTs will be as popular with NFL fans as they were among NBA fans remains to be seen, but it’s clear that more sports leagues are likely to knock on Dapper’s door to get their own version to work.
