Leaderboard Alpha Leaks π
Featuring an Ode to Bill Russell, Leaderboard Leaks & Metrics, the NBA's Web3 Experience & More
Good Morning, B&B Fam! Happy Hump Day, and hope your week is off to an excellent start!
On a somber note βΒ the NBA lost a true legend this weekend, with Bill Russell passing away on Sunday at the age of 88. Both on the court (11x NBA Champion, 5x MVP, 12x All-Star, amongst a million other accolades) and off it (activist, civil rights + equality advocate, barrier breaker), Russell impacted professional sports like few others have.
If you want to learn more (his story is one worth listening to), a great primer via the NBAβs In Memoriam vid:
And a good article on Russellβs off-the-court achievements from Sports Illustrated here. RIP to an all-time great!
Letβs get into all the action from the last few days:
Reward Alpha π΅οΈ
We got a little bit of alpha on Tuesday, via our favorite source β Jayne!
On Top Shotβs Twitter Spaces, βThe Weekly Burnβ, there was a discussion about Team Leaderboard Rewards β which is a hot topic given the polarizing reward structure changes from last week.
After Top Shotβs Packrip Ewing confirmed with β99 percent certaintyβ that Top 750 Team leaderboard rewards will be βTeam Top Shot Debutsβ and in the Rare tier (though I believe Jacob had previously said they would be Fandom?), Jayne added later a mention of βplanning forβ Legendary.
While there seemed to be a misunderstanding of what the initial question was on Jayneβs part (so nothing confirmed yet), hearing that Legendary rewards are in the leaderboards plans is a pretty juicy leak.
Given the mint sizes of legendaries being <100, Iβd think that these would be for those somewhere within the Top 100 (not the October 750 reward as mentioned in the Spaces) βΒ and likely to come later in the year. While getting to the Top 100 is certainly no easy feat, racing up the leaderboards just got a bit more interesting!
Speaking of getting into the Top 100β¦ Some good data here on some leaderboard metrics from Momentum Labs:
NBA & The Metaverse π
Since youβre reading this newsletter, you are probably no stranger to Top Shot βΒ one of the NBAβs most extensive forayβs into Web3/NFTs/the Metaverse. As constantly one of the more forward-thinking professional leagues, the NBA has not been shy with experimenting (remember The Association NFTs?)
The rise of our little corner of the internet, with both the league and the professional athletes themselves, was detailed in this article from Fast Company:
And this quote really blew my mind, via Spencer Dinwiddie:
βMaybe it was girls, cars, and stuff eight years ago,β he says on a Zoom call. But about five years ago, as players became more financially savvy, that started to change; suddenly people were giving tips on their stock portfolios and chatting about VC funds.
This past season, things evolved even further. βNow itβs Bored Apes, NFTs, and digital assets,β Dinwiddie says.
Dinwiddie is no stranger to innovation, and is a big crypto advocate (who also tried to tokenize his NBA contract). But to see a professional athlete with plans for his own show about the space is truly amazing:
Flowty x TFM π€
The First Mint is excited to partner with Flowty, a peer-to-peer NFT loan and rental platform on the Flow Blockchain founded by Michael Levy (fondly known as MBL throughout the Top Shot community).
Are you an NBA Top Shot collector / investor? Did you know that you can do a LOT more with moments than just buy and sell them?
Need help completing a Top Shot challenge? Rent on Flowty.
Have extra moments for a challenge and want to generate income in a safe way? Rent out your moments on Flowty.
Need liquidity but donβt want to sell your moments? Use moments as collateral to take out a loan on Flowty.
Looking for an alternative way to invest in Top Shot? Generate passive income by lending (funding loans) on Flowty.
Flowtyβs rental and loan marketplace allows renters, owners, borrowers and lenders to transact in a safe and easy way!
Want to learn more? Join the Flowty Discord and follow along on Twitter at @flowty_io.
Around The First Mint π£
π§ Value In The Bear Market (Feat. Tasha Labs)
The crypto market can't make up its mind, so we called up one of the best in the biz: Tascha from Tascha Labs, who literally holds a PhD in Macroeconomics and is a well known writer in the crypto space. She shares her insight on the macro, the war, the market, and how this current version of NFTs has zero chance of sticking around.
π§ What Makes an NFT Bull Run? (Feat. Mack Flavelle)
π§ Crypto Portfolio 101 (Feat. Scott Melker)
Thanks for reading! βΒ ZachΒ @ The First Mint
FollowΒ ZachΒ on Twitter atΒ @GhostOfGregOden.ο»Ώ
**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.β
About The First Mint
The First Mint is a web3 media company. We make. We write. We talk. We listen.