NBA Top Shot NFT Marketplace Clone Development—Sport NFTs

2021 Own the Moment NFT, Inc.

NBA Top Shot is live on Gaia!Trade the most iconic moments in Flow and earn points towards the “Seize The Moment” challenge.

What you need to get started

You will need to create an account on the NBA Top Shot website to get started. Once you have done that, you can start buying, selling or trading.

The NBA and NBA Top Shot are partnering up to create groundbreaking, 1-of-1 NFTs for each of the league’s 30 teams. Designed for the ultimate fan, these NFTs provide the owners with unprecedented, VIP access to the next 5 NBA All-Stars, starting in 2023.

These first of their kind NFTs will also give the primary owner exclusive NBA Top Shot perks & utility.Once you enter with your NBA Top Shot Account, find ways to get extra entries

If you aren’t aware of NBA Top Shot and the NFT craze, what better time to learn than today? With over $600 million in sales from Top Shot moments, the latest sports fan memorabilia trend is taking off all over the world. You may be amazed as you see first-hand the values some digital trading cards hold.

In this article, we’ll highlight the 10 most valuable NBA Top Shot digital cards right now and what makes them special. All figures listed refer to the lowest asking price on the marketplace as of this update.

Find real-time deals in the NBA Top Shot marketplace.

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Mike Antolin was CoinDesk’s SEO Content Writer for Learn.

This piece is part of CoinDesk’s Sports Week.

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors’ opinions or evaluations.

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Talk to any NFT enthusiast about how they first formed an interest in the technology, and there’s a good chance they’ll mention the National Basketball Association’s Top Shot digital collectible platform.

The Dapper Labs-created hub, which allows fans to purchase videos of game moments and other virtual memorabilia, quickly became a sensation after it launched in late 2020, helping to lay the foundation for the NFT craze to come.

At Coindesk’s recent Consensus conference in Austin, the company behind the popular platform and other executives in the sports NFT space discussed how the league managed to create such a popular gateway into the crypto art world and what’s next for the sports NFT space.

WORK SMARTER — LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

The joint venture between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and non-fungible powerhouse Dapper Labs (the creators of the CryptoKitties NFTs) has ballooned exponentially since its 2020 launch. And it’s easy to see why: Top Shot created a space where individuals interested in NFTs, collectibles, and — crucially — basketball can converge to trade pieces of sports history. This brought people closer than ever to their favorite teams, players, and sports moments.

Whether you’re an NBA Top Shot newbie or an advanced NFT collector, here’s everything you need to know to get involved and make an informed choice about collecting.

NBA Top Shot eclipsed $1 billion in sales Friday, a landmark that comes amid a major dip in crypto assets over the last month.

Since the start of May, the overall digital asset market has seen daily transactions and the average sale price crater more than 90%, according to CyrptoSlam. Top Shot has fared better, although sales activity has plateaued in recent months.

Since the success of Top Shot, Dapper Labs has secured deals with the NFL and UFC among other leagues, and executives are hardly panicking over the recent downturn.

“You know, this isn’t a backyard project for any of us,” Jayne Peressini, Dapper Labs’ VP of Growth, told Front Office Sports.

None of those purchases were made in 2022; the most-expensive moment bought this year was a James Moment that went for $65,000 in January.

Peressini touted the real-world benefits of purchasing Top Shot Moments, like a meetup with the top 15 collectors in the Bay Area that included a suite at a recent Golden State Warriors game with an appearance from former star Chris Mullin.

“That’s an example of real-life utility and that’s what we’re creating,” said Peressini, a former EA Sports exec.

But why exactly did NBA Top Shot become so popular and is it possible to make an NBA top shot marketplace clone? Read on and get all the answers from an NFT marketplace development expert.

NBA Top Shot Explained

Around $1 billion has been exchanged on NBA Top Shot

NBA Top Shot NFT marketplace clone?

NBA Top Shot clone is an NFT platform for trading collectibles. It can keep and add many exciting features like challenges, package drops, a marketplace, and more. Our team can personalize it for any sports niche.

Before you start thinking about making an NBA Top Shot NFT marketplace clone you need to get an idea of how it works and what’s competitive advantage of it. The concept of NBA Top Shot is not exactly new, as it was already in the market in the form of sports cards and similar collectibles. But NBA Top Shot took it to a whole new level.

At its core, the NBA Top Shot is a big marketplace, where fans can buy, sell, and trade NFTs called Moments. What’s special about moments?

What Stort Can Be Turned Into NFT Collectibles & Sports Marketplace Like NBA Top Shot?

Each sport has fans’ most liked moments, and making them into collectibles can have a huge benefit. Here are a few things that can be turned into digital collectibles with Flow NFT development.

Main Components of the NFT Sports Marketplace

NBA Top Shot clone you should consider salient features that will define how it will function. Here are the main components of any NFT Sports marketplace:

rise in the value of Ethereum has made Ether the second-most valuable digital currency after Bitcoin. Ethereum allows smart contracts and provides the underlying architecture and software.

BSC (Binance Smart Chain)

Here is a step-by-step guide on NBA Top Shop-like Flow NFT development or UFC Strike-like NFT Development.

Step 1. Market Analysis

Starting any business, you should know your market. Explore different sports niches rather than going for basketball, as the NBA Top Shot. There is a big untapped fanbase in soccer and hockey that may make you the next leader in the market.

Step 2. Define your sports marketplace type

Make a plan of what specific items and unique collectibles your marketplace will have. You may also want to create a roadmap to develop your sports NFT marketplace. Having a clear plan will help you launch your marketplace as soon as possible.

Step 3. Design magic

Step 4. Develop your sports marketplace

Turn your creative idea into a fully functioning sports NFT marketplace. Choose the right tools, techs, and frameworks for technical realization. And if your company is lacking suitable professionals it’s always better to opt for a dedicated team of experts, like OmiSoft,  that will do the coding part using a high-end tech stack.

Step 5. Testing & Launch

Before you let your NFT marketplace see the world, it’s important to find and fix all flaws, errors, and bugs. After you can introduce the final product to the market.

The bottom line

Book a free consultation with a price estimate for NBA Top Shot-like marketplace development.

In February 2021, Jesse Schwarz bought a Top Shot NFT of LeBron James dunking for $208,000, setting a record. It was the most expensive sale in the platform’s short history; at the time, the average price of a Moment — Top Shot lingo for an NFT — was $181.81, according to CryptoSlam. “To invest and set that record with the $208,000 purchase on LeBron just was an awesome Moment as a fan but obviously as an investor, too,” Schwarz told me then.

“The purchase I made about a year ago, that was kind of the peak.”

It is now June 2022, and Schwarz is still holding the NFT, but the number of monthly unique buyers on Top Shot tumbled by more than half. In May, the average price of an NFT on the platform was just $17.71. “The purchase I made about a year ago, that was kind of the peak,” Schwarz says. He then compared Top Shot Moments unfavorably to Bored Ape Yacht Club, another NFT project. The cheapest Bored Ape available as of June 6th is $163,298.67, according to CoinGecko.

“The first question, obviously, if prices fall is how did they get so high in the first place?” says Michael Levy, another Top Shot collector. “And is that something that was something that Top Shot or the Dapper team did to lead prices that high? Is it something that they are responsible for keeping up at a certain level?”

The data from CryptoSlam backs that up: in December 2020, there were 910 unique buyers, and the average price for a Moment was $27.11. In January, there were more than 19,000 unique buyers, and the average price for a Moment was $80.20. By February, there were more than 80,000 unique buyers, and the average Moment price was $181.81.

“Top Shot just flooded the market with more and more Moments,” Schwarz says.  “My LeBron Moment is still 149. But now there’s tons of other LeBron Moments, and they’re making new ones every month. And they just weren’t bringing new people in.”

Sure, there’s a speculative side to NFTs, says Jayne Peressini, VP of growth at Dapper Labs. But to Peressini, an NFT is a “tangible asset.” When a stock goes down, she says, she has less value — but when an NFT goes down, she still has the NFT. The same goes for a physical trading card. And, Peressini noted, the majority of actual trading cards aren’t worth much either.

Peressini views Top Shot as a long game. “This is still a maturing market,” she tells me. ”We have a lot of really loyal customers, and they don’t ask us about the price, they ask us, ‘Hey, what are you doing with the product?’”

This difference in interaction, visibility, and supply hasn’t gone unnoticed by collectors. “So kind of the core of NFTs and collecting is you’re trusting the company or the creator to keep scarcity. And that’s what makes it appealing, right?” says Schwarz, who compared Top Shot unfavorably to Bored Ape Yacht Club in this respect. BAYC’s approach to building a community is “very calculated and still not outpacing the demand.”

“So right now, the Top Shot market has been going down, while everyone with Bored Apes and other collections are celebrating.”

Levy was more charitable. “They’ve been trying to find the right balance between collecting, gamification, kind of fantasy sports elements, and that mix,” says Levy. “And so they’ve been pulling levers up and down trying to find the right mix.”

“Some people left Top Shot and bought a bunch of cats and apes and stuff and became millionaires,” Doucet says. “And the people that stuck to Top Shot lost money. There’s no easy way to say that.”

“I don’t see these prices as a negative at all.”

Levy, for instance, is sympathetic to Dapper and the choices it faces when navigating between its original business plan and its disgruntled community members. “As they’ve experimented, some people have not liked decisions, some people have wanted them to take more responsibility for the prices in the secondary market. And it’s a huge company, so it takes a little time to react.” While he thinks Dapper made some decisions that didn’t look great in hindsight, he doesn’t think they were obviously wrong at the time.

“I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world that people who were kind of attracted to the free money aspect have moved on to other projects,” Levy told me. “I think Top Shot will do best when they appeal to core NBA fans who value the actual product.”

Top Shot had great engagement in the last year, exceeding the NBA’s expectations, says Adrienne O’Keeffe, who leads consumer products and gaming partnerships at the NBA. “It still is a brand-new space, and was even more so when we launched Top Shot,” she says. “I think we’re all learning this together.”

When I spoke with Roham Gharegozlou, Dapper Labs’ CEO, last year, he told me that there were plans for a mobile game that was supposed to roll out in 2021. That didn’t happen. Gharegozlou also told me in 2021 that he viewed Top Shot as a souped-up version of a fan club, which might mean real perks at real games. That part has come closer to reality.

“From our perspective, what we’re trying to do here is drive fan engagement, give our fans a way to display their ownership, show off their ownership and connect with the league,” says the NBA’s O’Keeffe. “Our goal is to create a compelling product that engages our fans, keeps them excited, gives them access, and keeps them coming back, regardless of the secondary value.”

“These are all strangers who I only know through Top Shot.”

There have been some player meet-and-greets in the Top Shot Discord — but the fan club aspect of Top Shot isn’t confined to the internet. Top Shot has started a “team captain” initiative, where a “team captain” for a group of fans — for instance, the Toronto Raptors — is given a budget of $5,000 to $10,000 to put together local events. “I applied to be a team captain,” Steve told me. He’s excited about that — he already gave away 16 game tickets on his own to other collectors so they could all go together. (Dapper threw in for food and drinks.)

“These are all strangers who I only know through Top Shot,” Steve says. “And everyone who went had nothing but amazing things to say, which made me feel really good because I’m definitely an introvert.”

“I bought a LeBron James Moment for $30 and the rest is history.”

Peressini told me that she’d hosted 15 Golden State Warriors fans at a game, and they got to meet Chris Mullin, who’d played for the team in the 1980s. “These are things you can’t get from upgrading to a suite,” Peressini says. “These are connections that we have with the league. These are perks you can only get through our products.”

Some of the collectors I spoke to wanted to see bigger rewards — so if you hold a specific set of Moments, maybe you get all of that team’s merch, or you get guaranteed tickets to certain games. Schwarz points out that his famously expensive Moment was one of 49 Moments made of that dunk — so maybe all of those 49 people could get to meet a player or something.

“I bought a LeBron James Moment for $30 and the rest is history,” he tells me.

When I spoke to Libruary last year, he’d been a sports card collector who liked that Moments were easier to display and more portable than his physical card collection. He’d even posted about his enthusiasm in a sports card forum in October 2020, where someone replied to his post by posting a GIF of a child tossing money from a window.

Libruary pulls that thread back up when we chat again this year. “I think that person was misguided when they posted that,” he says. “They probably should have looked into it a little harder and done a little bit of research, because that was at a time before NFTs were mainstream or anything. A hundred bucks in Top Shot probably would have got them a few grand.”

Should You Buy Top Shot Moments?

If you’re a true NBA fan and you’re willing to hedge your bets on the future success and popularity of the players, the Top Shot marketplace and NFTs, then investing in this new crypto craze could be for you.

Potential for financial gains aside, those who are truly passionate about NBA basketball and collecting Moments of their favorite players and game highlights have the potential to benefit from the sheer joy of the pastime.

NBA Top Shot is not for people looking to get rich quick, says Julian Morris, founder and principal at Concierge Wealth Management. “I recommend setting a budget and having fun with it, but don’t plan to retire off your Top Shot Moments,” he says.

Investors and collectors seeking to diversify their holdings may consider taking a small position in NFTs. If you’re new to crypto and NFTs, NBA Top Shot may be an appealing option because it’s easy to use and widely accessible.

That said, the values of most collectibles, including NFTs, tend to be volatile. After all, a LeBron dunk NFT could be tomorrow’s Beanie Babies.

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How to open an account on NBA Top Shot

Go to nbatopshot.com and register with an email account or choose your Google account for a quick sign-up.

For payments, you will be able to use either fiat currency, credit card or cryptocurrency such as ETH and FLOW.

1. After signing up using your specified email address, click the button wherein you are to the terms and conditions of the website.

Sign up (NBA Top Shot)

2. Don’t forget to review and agree to the terms and use privacy policy, and NBA privacy policy.

Terms of use (NBA Top Shot)

3. Choose your favorite NBA or WNBA team.

Favorite team (NBA Top Shot)

4. After that, you can see the available products and start collecting.

Collecting (NBA Top Shot)

What Can You Expect to Pay for NBA Top Shot Moments?

Like all NFTs, a Moment is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay in the secondary market. Rare Moments from top players can go for hefty sums, while others sell for just a few dollars.

A Moment of a LeBron dunk against the Houston Rockets, for instance, fetched $387,600 last year.

According to the site Cryptoslam!, one of the most valuable NBA Top Shot Moments is a LeBron dunk from a Nov. 15, 2019 game, with 49 mints. One of those minted Moments is currently on sale for $1 million.

Like trading cards, Moments are finite, and NBA Top Shot determines how many to release at once. So, getting a Moment that’s 1 in 49 is more valuable than one that’s 1 in 11,000.

How are Top Shot Moments valued?

Scarcity will obviously always be a major factor in the value of NFTs and trading cards. Top Shot makes it easy to discern what Moments are more scarce than others at a glance. Moment Ranks can also be incredibly helpful in determining the value of your Moment. Further, Evaluate.Market is great for tracking portfolio and Moment value over time.

Typically, low (1 to 99) and perfect (100/100) mint numbers always fetch a higher price. This was true for trading card valuation and is definitely still true in NFTs. Vanity numbers like 69, 420, 888, etc. are also very highly coveted. However, it’s an especially big win when you get a mint number that matches the jersey number of a player. In other words, if LeBron is wearing #23 in the Moment, mint #23 will likely have just as much value as the #1 mint from the pack.

In the Top Shot marketplace, you’ll see either a CC or LE underneath the name of the Moment. CC stands for “Circulating Count” and is the number of editions of that Moment currently in circulation. These Moments can be considered an open edition. There is no cap on the amount that can be minted, and they will continue to be sold until they expire. LE stands for “Limited Edition,” meaning these Moments are finite and usually in lower quantities (50, 100, 750, etc. edition sizes). The largest sales on the site usually come from these LEs.

When you own multiple Moments, you can then do things like sell, gift, and showcase them (create a collection/album from them).

What Are NBA Top Shot Moments?

Moments are the video highlight clips sold as NFTs on NBA Top Shot. Much like conventional sports trading cards, Moments increase value based on their rarity. The rarer the video clip, the higher its potential value as a collectible.

On its surface, a Moment is simply a video clip of a specific play—a LeBron James dunk or Steph Curry layup, for example. So why would anyone pay money for video highlights they can watch for free on YouTube?

Moments are more than highlights. Like other NFTs, which represent real-world items from art to in-game items to music, each Moment is an NFT that’s officially licensed by the NBA and minted with a unique serial number and data, including game and player stats.

There’s also the cachet of owning a piece of basketball history. NFTs are like a certificate of authenticity: The technology behind them makes it difficult to replicate or counterfeit them.

Think of it like owning a piece of art. You can go online and print a copy of the Mona Lisa, but it’s nowhere near as valuable—or prestigious—as owning the real thing. It’s that pride of ownership that sets NBA Top Shot Moments apart.

LeBron James dunk, $40,000

Significance: NBA Top Shot debut: LeBron James shows he can still throw down with the best of them by posterizing a Kings defender and then mean-mugging him at the Staples Center. Same play as No. 2 on this list, but this moment is less rare since it can be pulled from packs.

Paul George jump shot, $80,000

Significance: NBA Top Shot debut: Paul George’s first moment on NBA Top Shot features a wild trick shot over the backboard that also drew the and-one.

How to buy NBA Top Shot Moments

To get started with Top Shot, you’ll need to register for NBA Top Shot with Dapper Labs. You can do this by clicking “sign up” on the Top Shot website. Creating a Dapper account gives you a wallet that stores funds and enables you to purchase crypto collectibles.

What are NBA Top Shot packs?

NBA Top Shot packs are randomly selected Moments bundled into a pack, usually by a specific theme such as WNBA and the NBA summer league.

Three categories of packs

The system operates just like trading cards, except that it combines NBA highlights and digital art. The NBA licenses reels to Dapper Laps, who then creates Moments from the footage. Moments are video highlights that have been attached to NFTs. Each has a unique digital serial number that guarantees the authenticity and indicates how rare the Moment is. Moments are the foundation that make up the Top Shot ecosystem.

Just like with trading cards, the team only makes a limited number of NFTs to create scarcity. This increases the rarity of specific Moments and, as a result, the financial value.

Top Shop opened the platform to a select few early supporters for beta testing in June 2020. By October of the same year, it was open to the public. Caty Tedman, head of partnerships at Dapper Labs, explained during SportsPro Live that the development was a fan-led process. “We didn’t have any revenue targets when we launched Top Shot into the closed beta. We wanted to build something that’s really sticky, that people will want to come back to every day and feels endemic to basketball fandom. I think we did that. We started from a fan perspective, so it was hard for fans not to love it. We’re fans and we love it,” she said.

What are the different NBA Packs and Moments?

Collecting goes far beyond simply buying and selling your favorite Moment. Each Moment comes from a Pack, each Pack is part of a Set, and you don’t know exactly what Moments you’ll get when you make a purchase. Ultimately, the rarity of a Moment can vary a lot depending on the type of set or Pack it comes from.

Moments are video highlights that are separated into four categories: Common Moments, Fandom Moments, Rare Moments, and Legendary Moments. There is also an Ultimate rarity, but this class of highly coveted Moments is only attainable via auction with an edition size of one or three. Here’s a breakdown of how each works:

Top Shot Moments are grouped into packs, which are created as sets in part of a series. These come in two overarching categories: Base and Non-Base.

Base Sets are exactly what they sound like: high edition sizes released regularly and at an affordable price (usually $9 each). Base Sets are dropped in order of Series and release — i.e., Series 1 had 12 releases. These typically always fall in the Common rarity category, and contain three basic Moments that are great for those just starting out or those looking to round out a collection.

Non-Base Sets, on the other hand, come in many different variations. Non-Base sets will always contain a Common Moment, but also something Rare and/or Legendary. Non-Base set packs like “Playoffs,” “Premium Pack,” and “Run It Back” can all be differentiated by their much flashier packaging. Of course, these are also pricier.

Image showing an NBA Top Shot starter pack. Credit: Top Shot

Buying NFTs on NBA Top Shot

There are a few ways to obtain NFTs on Top Shot The most common methods are through packs under drops (as shown in the red box below) or by purchasing packs or Moments individually in the marketplace (as shown in the blue box below).

Drops vs marketplace (NBA Top Shot)

You can get Moments in three ways:

Pack purchases

Packs are blind purchases that offer a chance to get random Moments. As we outlined earlier, packs have different tiers and some will be more expensive than others. Just like with physical trading card packs, the contents of each pack are not made public until they are opened and the Moments are revealed.

A marketplace is a place where you can buy and sell Moments with other members of the community. All transactions on the marketplace are done using flow, the cryptocurrency that powers NBA Top Shot.

LeBron James dunk, $195,000

Significance: Challenge Reward (Moment cannot be pulled from packs, only from completing challenges) – LeBron James drives the lane to dunk on a Kings defender standing in his way.

Challenges

You can opt to complete a challenge to obtain a Moment NFT. Challenges comprise of tasks that you need to complete to enter the challenge to be qualified for a reward. For instance, the screenshot below shows the tasks associated with this Donovan Mitchell challenge.

Challenge requirements (NBA Top Shot)

Farther down the page, the tasks are defined more clearly, like the screenshot below for the Donovan Mitchell challenge.

Detailed requirements (NBA Top Shot)

Ja Morant dunk, $25,000

Significance: Triple Badge Collectible: Rookie Year, Rookie Mint, and NBA Top Shot debut: As one of basketball’s rising superstars, Ja Morant creates new highlights on a nightly basis. This moment in time captured a wildly explosive dunk.

The most expensive NBA Top Shot NFT sales

In January 2021, a group including FantasyLabs co-founders Jonathan Bales and Peter Jennings bought a Ja Morant Moment for $35,000. At the time, this was a record-setting buy for the platform, and one which helped boost both popularity and sales. Days later, SnapBack Sports founder Jack Settleman arranged a group to buy the Serial No. 23 moment of the LeBron James Legendary “Kobe Tribute” dunk for $47,500.

Not to be outdone, that same month tech investor Jeremy Levine bought the #1 Zion Holo Moment for $100,000. And an NBA Top Shot Moment of a LeBron James dunk during the 2020 NBA Finals sold for $387,600 in April of 2021. Unfortunately, given the dip in the value of each NBA Top Shot Moment across the board, that same LeBron clip is currently valued at $230,023.

Advantages of NBA Top Shot

Significance: NBA Top Shot debut – Ironically, Vince Carter’s Top Shot debut is actually the final three-point shot the future basketball Hall of Fame player hit in his iconic career.

What are Moment NFTs?

Moment NFTs are official NBA digital collectibles that capture epic highlights from NBA games and of players. These NFTs consist of short videos that show an amazing highlight from the court, such as a half-court 3-pointer or a buzzer-beating jump shot, along with details on the team, player and any other info that makes that Moment special.

Apart from the core collection, a Moment can also depict a historical event for one of the teams in the NBA or WNBA.

Wondering how you can snag a Moment of your own? First, you need to sign up and get verified on the official NBA Top Shot marketplace.

NBA Top Shot also hosts a healthy secondary marketplace where fans can buy, sell, trade, or gift packs or individual Moments.

Luka Doncic dunk, $29,999

Significance: NBA Top Shot debut: One of the most marketable athletes in basketball, Luka Doncic navigates past three defenders with ease, only to slam a dunk home in the face of a fourth defender.

LeBron James dunk, $23,000

Significance: Championship season (Play is from team’s Championship year) LeBron James broke loose on the fastbreak, priming him for a vicious two-handed reverse windmill.

Disadvantages of NBA Top Shot

Significance: Triple Badge Collectible – Rookie Year, Rookie Mint, and NBA Top Shot debut: Featuring many badges and just being an awesome play with one of the NBA’s most explosive athletes is enough to make this Ja Morant moment special.

Can You Make Money on NBA Top Shot?

There’s no shortage of epic tales of iconic NBA Top Shot Moments selling for astounding prices.

Like physical trading cards, Moments’ value depends on supply and demand. Moments produced in greater quantities, or featuring lesser-known players, aren’t worth as much as a LeBron dunk.

Cryptoslam!, a site that tracks NFT sales and values from various online marketplaces, including NBA Top Shot, had several Moments listed for as little as $4 at the time of writing.

While some early adopters have amassed collections worth millions, these NFTs are like any investment. Past performance is not a reliable predictor of future results, especially if the market is cooling off.

NFT marketplace

Apart from buying packs, you can search for individual Moments according to subcategories like rookies and top sales. For example, the homepage of the marketplace lets you choose which subcategory you like, as seen in the screenshot below.

When you buy or sell Moments on the marketplace, you do so directly with another community member. There is no mediator involved in the transaction. The transaction is like buying and selling a product on eBay where the transaction takes place.

Aug 12, 2022 at 7:14 p.m. UTC

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Derrick Rose layup is most expensive NBA Top Shot moment at $1,000,000

Significance: This is vintage Derrick Rose, a player who captivated the basketball community during his heyday with the Chicago Bulls. Even years later, Rose is still showing a knack for finishing at the rack.

NBA Top Shot is an NFT marketplace where sports fans can buy, sell and trade basketball video clips.

Launched in 2020, NBA Top Shot is a partnership between the NBA and Dapper Labs, the creators of CryptoKitties. High-profile investors include the NBA legends Michael Jordan, Kevin Durrant and Klay Thompson.

What are Top Shot challenges and quests?

If pack opening isn’t exciting enough for you, Challenges and Quests are other significant aspects of the Top Shot ecosystem.

An example of a quest from NBA Top Shot. Credit: Top Shot

The future of NBA Top Shot

The future is looking bright for the Top Shot platform. While the overall NFT marketplace experienced a slowdown throughout the start of 2022, Top Shot NFT sales were up some 70%. Thanks to a few key announcements, 2022 looked to be a promising year for the NFT space’s premier NBA-licensed IP.

But how have all these plans shaped up in practice? Unfortunately, despite the promising start NBA Top Shot had to start 2022, sales volume on the project has calmed down to a largely stagnant — if not downward — trajectory. April 2022 saw the NBA Top Shot amass a sales volume of roughly $26 million. That’s a 68 percent drop compared to its performance in April 2021, which saw the project move $82 million worth of NFTs. Some of Top Shot’s most ardent supporters believe this drop in sales — and value — can be traced back to when NBA Top Shot flooded the market with new NFTs to cope with increasing demand and complaints regarding its queue waiting times.

NBA Top Shot’s road to recovery

However, not all hope is lost. TSF later clarified that he maintains his support for the project, and urges others to do the same. “There is no doubt that Top Shot can recover and grow into something even more than it has ever been. It will take time for Top Shot to correct some of its mistakes and deliver on its many promises, but when it does, it will allow them to attract long-term collectors whose expectations are aligned with what the platform is designed for,” he said.

Further updates include new “Crafting Challenges,” where fans permanently lock a number of Moments meeting given criteria in exchange for ultra-limited rewards, even more IRL events, spend-based rewards, and FLOW coin support. With top figures like Gharegozlou voicing their support for Top Shot, it’ll be exciting to see what other notable names are added to the ecosystem during the next NFT market influx.

Editor’s note: At time of publication, members of the nft now staff are holders of NBA Top Shot NFTs.

James Harden 3-pointer, $120,000

Significance: Challenge Reward (moment is not in packs): James Harden uses a deadly crossover to throw Patrick Beverley off his game as he rises to drill the three-point shot.