A frame from the Nba home page top shot
The Dapper Labs announced, on Tuesday 30, that it had raised 305 million dollars from a group of investors, including some NBA legends and other athletes and celebrities such as Stefon Diggs, Ashton Kutcher, Shawn Mendes and Will Smith. The deal, led by Coatue Management, values ​​the company $ 2.6 billion, according to sources familiar with the transaction. NBA Top Shot is a site where basketball fans can own a digital copy of a highlight video such as a dunk or a winning shot.
This assessment reflects the explosive interest in NFT, non-fungible tokens, which use the blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies to authenticate unique digital assets such as basketball highlight art, music or video. The NFT market grew to at least $ 338 million in 2020, according to a report by NonFungible.com and research firm L’Atelier, from about $ 41 million in 2018
. the attention of people, from art collectors to the authors of the popular Saturday Night Live TV show, also because those who are selling them, from Twitter boss Jack Dorsey to electronic music artist 3LAU, have made millions of dollars in recent months .
Some analysts see a speculative frenzy and warn buyers could suffer rapid losses. Proponents say the tokens allow musicians and artists to distribute and monetize their work more easily, providing collectors with the tool to verify the authenticity of the work.
NBA Top Shot was a real success. With less than five months of beta testing, the platform has more than 800,000 registered users and completed nearly $ 500 million in sales, forging unlikely millionaires in the process.
“NFTs are entering the public consciousness in a big way,” said Roham Gharegozlou, Chief Executive of Dapper Labs. “Whether it’s music artists, gamers or sports leagues, everyone wants to explore how NFTs can change their business.”
NBA Top Shot has processed more than 3 million transactions, the company said. More than two-thirds of the 344,000 users who bought a Top Shot token, also known as a Moment, made a purchase outside the platform’s secondary selling market.
Dapper Labs plans to use the new funding to finish developing a mobile application for NBA Top Shot and expand the company’s platform to serve other developers and creators. Speculation has contributed to the recent interest in NFTs, but the adoption of tokens by companies and sports leagues can bring these collectibles to the general public, Gharegozlou said.
“These are cultural heavyweights, and I see that as an endorsement of this technology by cultural heavyweights,” he said of the celebrities who have invested in Dapper Labs.
Some NBA athletes say they are starting to see the benefits of a collectible marketplace where fans and players can interact more online. Owning a highlight video that can be shared on social media platforms like Twitter, where players are able to engage, provides a new way for fans to build relationships, said Andre Iguodala, Miami Heat star and investor in Miami. latest round of funding from Dapper Labs.
“It’s all about the growth and interactions between fans and players,” said the three-time NBA champion. “I had a lot of stickers as a kid, but I personally don’t remember professional athletes being involved in the process of that business.”
