Let the Burning Begin 🔥
Featuring a Hot Pack Post-Mortem, Money Mathurin, The Great Top Shot Burn, Sorare Freebies & More
Good Morning, B&B Squad! Happy Saturday, and if you’ve followed the Crypto space over the last week (which has felt like a year)… We all really need this weekend.
I am not going to rehash the FTX drama, since this is a basketball newsletter — but it is a sad moment for the space. And I hope everyone reading this is doing OK after this really brutal week.
Anyhoo, here are some fun NBA clips and comedy to brighten your day:
This Trae Young - John Collins alley-oop was nasty — and the angle of the two defenders colliding looks like it was scripted for a movie.
Here is Nikola Vucevic with the most casual middle finger in this history of insults. Definitely didn’t get his money’s worth for the $15,000 fine.
Big Kuz Energy in this postgame presser. It takes a confident man, a crazy man, or a little of both to pull off some of his outfits:
Let’s get into all the action from the last few days:
Hot Pack Post-Mortem ☀️
Top Shot’s new Hot Packs were delivered to accounts on Thursday, with the no-queue draw system seeming to go off without a hitch. Honestly, at this point in my Top Shot career, I appreciated the zero-queue system — though I know there are some who love the dopamine hit of finding out what number in line you get.
A look at the top Series 4 sellers so far, with rookie sensation Benedict Mathurin lapping the competition for the top low ask:
Also notable coming out of Hot Packs was ‘The Great NBA Top Shot Burn’ that was announced on Wednesday, with 2.5M unsold moments from the vault getting torched.
The lowdown on the type of moments being burned, via the blog:
While users might not see this burn reflect in the market prices, the move was a great show of good faith from Top Shot. Supply has always been the elephant in the room, and burning a huge supply of unreleased moments (that they easily could’ve sold and made a ton of profit on) is a community > money move. Love to see it!
Sorare Streets 🚥
Sorare added a few new innovations this week, both of which I think are really smart moves to continue engaging the common/free users and entice moving into higher competitors.
The first was a daily free common card, which is exactly how it sounds. Choose from five players to add to your team each day, giving users more options and lineup decisions for the Common tier competitions:
Also new was the implementation of ‘bundles’, which is a super sharp way to break down the barriers for entry to higher tiers:
Don’t have the time to grind auctions or figure out the marketplace? These bundles can set you up with a competitive team with the click of a button. Very sharp way to get users into the Limited tourneys, and the details about where that lineup finished/ the reward it received are super cool.
Lower tiers aside, the whales continue to swim in the Super Rare/Unique levels, with another big sale rolling in yesterday:
Community Q&A Fun 🐦
Around The First Mint 🗣
🎧 Why Tom Brady’s $200M NFT Project Is Struggling
When Tom Brady retired in February 2022, he announced that he would dedicate all his time to his new NFT platform: Autograph. Designed to sell digital collectibles of top tier athletes like Tiger Woods and Wayne Gretzky, the platform burst out of the gate amidst the NFT boom. But in the doldrums of the bear market, the platform is struggling to keep collectors happy, as promises are broken and Brady spends another season on the field. We dive into the project, its co founders, and talk directly to the community.
🎧 How Nike Plans to Double Revenue with NFTs
🎧 Why the Chicago Bulls are winning at NFTs (Feat. Luka Dukich)
🎧 Steph Curry’s Multi-Billion Dollar Future in Crypto
Thanks for reading!
Follow Zach on Twitter at @GhostOfGregOden.
**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.”
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