The Longest Moment In Top Shot 📏

Featuring August NFT Comparisons, LBJ Squad Goals Results, A Lengthy Lu Dort Moment, NBA Drama & More

Aug 10, 2022

Good Morning, B&B Squad! Happy Wednesday — hope your week is off to a great start!

Missing August 2021 in NFTs? Me too:

Last August was *the* moment for NFTs Sales on OpenSea: Aug 2021 | $3.4B Aug 2022 | $522M (on pace) We're on pace for an 84% decline from the same month last year🥶

But while sales numbers are down from last year, things don’t feel AS bad as the global macro situation and mainstream reporting on NFTs would make you believe.

While June was a painful month that saw some scary lows, the crypto market has been creeping upwards — and it feels like some renewed interest is coming back to the NFT world after a slow summer.

With Ethereum’s ‘Merge’ expected to come on Sept. 19, the next month should be an interesting watch for both crypto and NFTs.

Let’s get into all the action from the last few days:

Keeping Tabs On Top Shot 🧐

Not really anything SUPER compelling happening at the moment in the Top Shot space, but there are a lot of little things worth hitting on. So here are a few short but sweet updates around the platform:

After having Locker Packs available on the site since mid-July, the Trade Ticket packs finally sold out this week. The next ones should be juicy — with S1 Commons being inserted into the moment pool:

NBA Top Shot Updates @topshot_updates

Locker Packs (Release 10) are now sold out! We're taking a brief timeout from Trade Ticket packs while we prepare for Release 11, featuring Series 1 Common Moments. More details will be shared as we approach Locker Packs (Release 11).

The most-hyped ‘Squad Goals’ crafting challenge of the summer expired on Tuesday with 595 completions — making for a pretty low-minted LeBron James moment.

Low ask is currently sitting at $593 as of this writing — the second highest valued moment in the set (Blake Griffin currently sits at $745).
We also saw a familiar face land the #1 serial on the LBJ burn, with whale collector GreekFreak getting that sweet, sweet serial luck.
Speaking of Squad Goals… The next two teams up are the Milwaukee Bucks (Khris Middleton) and the OKC Thunder (Lu Dort). This Dort moment has to be the longest in Top Shot history — just hilariously absurd:
Austin Kent @AustinKent
{\__/} ( • . •) / >♥️>
6:37 PM ∙ Aug 9, 2022
50Likes3Retweets
On the W side, Tuesday saw the release of 15,000 S4 Base packs, highlighted by a new Sue Bird moment (and potentially one of her last on the platform).

Summer Spectacles 🎭

With the Top Shot streets being fairly quiet right now, it’s a great time to check in on the 24/7 reality show that is the NBA!

Despite being in the midst of the Summer offseason lull, we’ve had some fun drama over the last week, including:

A wild Kevin Durant demand:

Shams Charania @ShamsCharania

In a meeting with Nets owner Joe Tsai, Kevin Durant reiterated his trade request and informed Tsai that Tsai needs to choose between Durant or the pairing of general manager Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash, sources say. Story:

theathletic.comDurant tells Nets owner to trade him or fire Nash, Marks: SourcesIn a face-to-face meeting with Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai over the weekend, All-NBA star Kevin Durant reiterated his trade request and informed Tsai that he needs to choose between Durant or the pairing of general manager Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash, sources with direct knowledge of the...

And Atlanta Hawks guard DeJounte Murray getting feisty with No. 1 overall pick Paolo Banchero at a Summer Pro-Am game:

🏀Hawks Fan TV @HawksFanTV

Dejounte Murray got that dog in him

The two took the drama to IG, setting the stage for a juicy Hawks/Magic rivalry this year (said absolutely nobody).

DeJounte is also doing weird shit like this… And this… Against random non NBA hoopers. So — I’m going to have to give Banchero the benefit of the doubt in this saga for now!

Also, congratulations to Kelly Olynyk on his marriage, though the snapback during the ceremony is certainly a choice:

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

Kelly Olynyk really wore a snapback to his wedding 😂 (via @SpostoPhoto, @susandunne_weds, h/t @people)

Flowty x TFM 🤝

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 don’t 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.

Flowty’s 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 🗣

🎧 The Fate of FLOW

Last week, the $Flow token, Dapper Lab's underlying blockchain, surged 40% on the Instagram integration news. A bullish sign for sure. But what do we really know about the token, and what its future holds? And more importantly...how much $Flow are we getting airdropped at the end of this month?

🎧 What Makes an NFT Bull Run? (Feat. Mack Flavelle)

🎧 Crypto Portfolio 101 (Feat. Scott Melker)

🎧 Can Brands Win in NFTs? (Feat. Adam Brotman)

Thanks for reading! — Zach @ The First Mint

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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