NBA Top Shot and NFTs: Bringing Moments to Life
A decade ago, who would have imagined that people would be into digital collectibles? Welcome to a world where millions of dollars are exchanged in virtual trading cards every month.
NBA Top Shot is at the forefront of this movement, bringing sporting moments to life for millions of fans every day.
What is NBA Top Shot?
NBA Top Shot Moments is a partnership between Dapper Labs and the NBA. While Dapper is a blockchain company with a long history in cryptocurrency marketplaces, they have more recently developed an online forum on which people can trade virtual basketball cards.
Users can buy and sell video clips of their basketball idols (known as “moments”) from previous seasons via the platform.
Each “moment” lives on the blockchain — a distributed digital ledger — and is stored using cryptography, making them unique. It is impossible to forge “moments,” and they may be instantly authenticated.
How to Get NBA Top Shot Moments
You can buy “moments” directly from Top Shot in the form of limited-edition packs. These range in price from $9 (for a pack of common cards) to $999 (for a pack that contains the rarest in the game). Another way is to purchase them in a trading marketplace from other users for cash.
The availability of trading cards was never an issue during their first release. It was easy to buy a single moment featuring star players. You could buy these valuable assets at an affordable price. Before the NBA Top Shot boom, famous cards like a T.J. McConnell assist or a Jerami Grant dunk sold for around $3 or $4.
For a higher profile player’s “moment,” for example, that of Donovan Mitchell, you could expect to pay about $70. Some “moments” were freely availed to early users. But as the weeks passed and the number of users signing up for NBA Top Shot grew, and as more people were drawn in by the prospect of large cash payouts, things began to change.
Packs became scarce, and cash flooded the market. Even the most unappealing moments increased in value. The $3 McConnell’s NBA Top Shot “moment” was sold for $100 at the peak of NFTs mania in February. Mitchell’s “moment” was on the market for an eye-popping $1,000. And the even rarer trading card, a Giannis Antetokounmpo dunk, was sold for $1,300. More remarkable still is that it was valued at three times that amount just the following day, February 21.
What’s all the Fuss About?
It is interesting to review how NBA Top Shot works and understand the business’ increasingly digital-first mindset. Combine this with Dapper Labs, a well-known blockchain company that acts as a middleman for NBA Top Shot and offers an online platform for trading cards, and you have a winning formula. For the past year, NBA Top Shot has closed nearly $500 million in trading sales. Just imagine what a rare Michael Jordan rookie highlight non-fungible token (NFT) might be worth a year from now!
What are CryptoKitties?
CryptoKitties popularized the concept of the digital asset and became valuable before the term ‘non-fungible token’ had even been used. But so intense was the CryptoKitties crypto-mania that it all but crashed the Ethereum blockchain technology platform. At the time, it was simply too difficult to handle large quantities of non-transactional NFTs at scale.
NBA Took the Risk
The NBA subsequently gambled by staking its bets on NFTs despite what happened with CryptoKitties. It took a bold leap of faith that made possible the creation of a myriad of meaningful Top Shot “moments” for sports fans. That said, it has not been all smooth sailing, and there was a period where Top Shot “moments” and their lifespan were called into question.
What to Look Forward to from Dapper Labs
Fans will be pleased to learn that Dapper Labs is concentrating on enhancing the stability of its platform.
The influx of new users and an uptick in marketplace activity has resulted in some downtime and functionality limitations. This impacts both registrations and transactions. The issue is also compounded by the concurrent rush of bots attempting to sell valuable NBA “moment” packs as NFTs.
Dapper has also been collaborating with the WNBA to get them involved in generating Top Shot-like experiences.
NBA Inspires the Sports Industry
It has been argued that other sports organizations could use the NBA Top Shot “moment” as their inspiration to do great things. By leveraging the correct platforms, they will be in a position to give valuable experiences to their fanbases, and all signs indicate that the potential market for sports-related digital assets is set to soar.
These organizations would do well to tailor their products and collectibles (including trading cards, “moments”, video clips, and games) according to fans’ personal preferences.
Where to Next? The Future of NFTs and the NBA
NBA Top Shot’s initial success has garnered widespread confidence in NFTs. Dapper is not creating just a commodity for traders or people who want to buy and sell; they have set their sights on establishing a long-term business. And the strong partnership between Dapper Labs and NBA gives NBA Top Shot a decisive advantage.
Learning from the NBA and Dapper’s experiences would be a sensible starting point for would-be investors and traders.
