The NHL Web3 Meltdown 🫠💧
Featuring the NHL's first ever drop, the Steph Curry Anthology Moment, Sorare's NBA draft cards, and the great unlocking.
I know exactly what you’re thinking.
It’s mid-summer. You’re planning another weekend away with the kids or girlfriend. Your friend just hit you up about the fantasy football league. You’re about to head out for a nice Saturday of errands and outdoor time.
So it’s a perfect moment to talk hockey NFTs.
This past week saw the long-awaited launch of NHL Breakaway, where two different packs were set to drop at the exact same time - one with 300 supply, and the other with 450 supply.
Unfortunately, it went as they all do.
The drop encountered issues with the payment provider (Moonpay), and few if any collectors were able to even through to a purchase page.
I was lucky and hit that refresh early (yes, it was a “refresh and click” situation, not a queue), got 5x packs, but stalled at the transaction confirmation.
Bummer.
As usual, the discord erupted with the same old comments like :
“Its 2023 how is this still happening”
“they’ve lost me, I’m out after this”
“major top shot vibes here lolol”
Although the drop was on Polygon, even a slick L2 could not save the event. And its too bad really - it would have been nice for the sports community to see a win on a new project.
As for Breakaway, they quickly promised a rescheduling of the drop, and also voided all pending transactions (no one got any packs).
Ironically (or is it coincidence? happenstance?), we welcomed two members of the NHL Breakaway squad on the show earlier this week to discuss the project and how they’ve approached building it.
You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Now, onto everything that happened this week (besides that).
Every week we feature some very easy moves to make on the market, most of which are free or low cost. And remember, none of this is financial advice, please make your own decisions when buying NFTs or crypto! The First Mint is now responsible for anything you do.
🎨 Register for Museum of Mahomes | 10 seconds
Few details are known, but it looks like Patrick Mahomes is directly involved in his personal NFT project here, which promises special benefits and memorabilia.
🎄FREE Seussibles The Grinch Pack | 30 seconds
Available in the mobile app or on desktop, you can claim ONE free pack of “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”. Might be gated to those who have purchased before.
👾 Reddit Avatars Gen 4 | 60 seconds
Reddit launched a new wave of NFT Avatars this week to much fanfare. There is little alpha on these, as it’s unlikely they’ll ever be worth much. But hey, Reddit has onboarded more people than the rest of the space combined, so never a bad idea to get in on the action.
📦 Top Shot Drops Steph Curry Anthology
I’m not wild on the Anthology series, mainly because it creates yet another confusing layer of scarcity on TS and crosses over with the Run It Back sets.
But I’ll admit the art is super cool, and by focusing on super rare moments of the most popular players, the platform is able to re-create that lottery vibe from early 2021.
This week they released the Steph Curry Anthology moment across a multitude of drops on the website and in the mobile app.
I bought packs this week. Yes, I’ll admit it. And these were the first packs I had bought in ages.
I struck out on Curry though and quickly offloaded the moments I got - but on the bright side, community fave Steve Veerman was the lucky recipient of the #1 Steph.
🔐 The Great Unlock Continues (or doesn’t)
While I was away on vacation earlier this month, an event known as “the great unlocking” went down on Top Shot.
Basically, people who had locked their moments on July 15, 2022 (the first ever time this was possible), were going to be able to unlock them - suggesting a massive wave of sell offs.
Very little happened on that day though, as only the most hardcore of users were willing to lock moments blindly from day one.
What may happen over the next few months/year is a slow trickle downwards as many who locked through the end of 2022 come back into possession of their moments and choose to rocket launch them into the market.
Personally, I only had about 8-10 moments unlock, with more coming in two weeks time (all Raptors momes, since I wanted those sweet team rewards).
Weeks later, I’m left with an even bigger question for the community:
Haha, we all know who would do this. Come on now.
❤️🔥 Sorare Launches Exclusive NBA Rookie Cards
Alright this happened way earlier this month during NBA Summer League, but it’s worth a late mention here.
To celebrate the rookies entering the league this coming season, Sorare opted to release draft-photo rare cards to auction - and the results are hilarious.
Honestly, what’s going on here? This looks like the cover of a Meatloaf album, or the loading screen of a hell-themed video game.
Obviously the market was not deterred, as the Victor Wembanyama card sold for 9.99 ETH (yes, actually).
You may remember a similar tactic from Sorare for the NBA All-Star game, where the photos looked like they were taken for some kind of firefighter calendar.
🏟️ Sorare MLB Celebrates 1-year
My god, has it been one year already? Time flies!
Although MLB is the clear black sheep of the Sorare family with its significantly lower numbers than NBA or Soccer, I know many that have enjoyed through both this season and last.
Here are some numbers from the team at Sorare to celebrate the product’s first full year around the sun.
This is a mix of memes and other weird stuff I saw this week online.
**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.”
About The First Mint
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