A Milestone for the NBA🏀
Featuring a new podcast, a big LeBron sale on Top Shot, NHL Elite Collection breakdown, and a shakeup in the monthly rankings.
This lead story is only adjacent to web3, but somehow feels quite on point for the themes we cover regularly at The First Mint.
It involves basketball, streaming, and chocolate.
Heck, it even features LaMelo Ball, whom you may remember from notable NFTs such as the “Cool Cats Master Challenge” and the LaMeloverse collection (still waiting for him to show up in the Discord!).
Yes, I’m talking about Mr. Beast Feastables, a brand of chocolate bars created by the most famous YouTuber in the world, and one that will be featured as a sponsor on Charlotte Hornets jerseys this coming season.
Again, I know what you’re thinking.
How is this related to my bags sports NFTs?
Stay with me here.
Although this may seem like another middle-of-the-line sponsorship, up there with other thrilling NBA jersey sponsors like Credit Karma and Vistaprint, its actually so much more.
This is a major step forward for not only Mr. Beast, but for content creators all over the world.
When YouTube launched just 15 years ago, the platform began minting internet mini-celebrities overnight. Those initial viral videos made the platform what it is now - a place that records over 3B video views per day.
YouTube was one of the first real locations of the “creator economy” where average people could use their creative firepower to make a living with content. And now, one of them has reached a level of monetization where they literally make chocolate and sponsor NBA teams.
Very impressive. And an act that defines the ceiling (so far) for internet content creators.
Oh…it doesn’t mean much to you? Well, maybe ask your kid how they feel about Mr. Beast having his own chocolate brand and showing up on NBA jerseys.
Now, enter web3.
Feastables already has a history there - in fact, the chocolate bars were recently featured as a perk for signing up to “Create League”, an initiative that went under when gamers founds out the game passes would be NFTs.
It was (and still is) a great idea; a live streamed tournament involving some of the biggest streamers in the world with $250k up for grabs.
But once the users found out that the underlying technology was crypto, they revolted and forced many of the streamers out.
Too bad.
Now, I don’t really have a point here. But I feel like both these stories are circling sports and gaming NFTs.
On one hand, we have the greatest independent content creator of this generation becoming a “real” brand by sponsorship NBA teams.
And NFTs are largely about creator empowerment (not just trading cards), and we’ve likely already seen the Mr. Beast of web3 launch their early works.
On the other hand, we have a defunct gaming league that never got off the ground because gamers still can’t get over their blind hatred of NFTs.
NFTs that would largely enhance their gaming experience by giving them full autonomy over in-game assets and the power to further elevate their micro communities.
I think the point here is that 15 years ago, we could have never imagined a YouTuber (or YouTubing as an art) rising to such heights. And perhaps today, its hard to imagine an individual NFT creator rising to similar heights - despite our expectation that NFTs could and should be this “big”.
Growth takes time.
Acceptance of new mediums takes time.
And that time can often last an entire generation.
Mr. Beast is only 25 years old. He didn’t start his YouTube channel until 2012, years after the platform had launched and already created many viral stars.
It took some time.
And so will NFTs, in all shapes, forms, and creators.
So as we navigate this bear market and agonize over the “what ifs” of the great bull run of 2021, lets remind ourselves this industry will grow in due time.
Until then, let’s get into all the stories of the week.
💰 LeBron Cosmic Sells for $23,000
Wait, is this a headline from 2021?
Nope. It happened this week. And the buyer was an NFT OG who’s been in the game longer than any of us!
He dishes out a solid $23k on the Flowty marketplace to scoop up the LeBron James Cosmic - Cosmic being the “original” Top Shot set only minted to /49 each.
Although its a hefty sum of cash, the buyer is not short on funds - he claims he sold 3 of the exact same Moment back in the bull run and netted over $240k.
Does this mean that Top Shot is back?
It’s definitely not, but this LBJ Cosmic wasn’t the only notable purchase in the last few weeks.
After opening up its long overdue Pack Marketplace, a user immediately spent $1700 on a Series 1 Premium pack (wow).
Here are the full pack sale stats as of last week. Keep in mind, these are only for Series 1 packs from Top Shot.
🏒 NHL Breakaway Drops “Elites”
Just in time for the season - one that will feature the most coveted prospect since Connor McDavid - NHL Breakaway is releasing their “Elite” set.
Breakaway has already delighted its upstart fanbase with “freeze” challenges and a very early gifting option. They’ve also committed to relative scarcity, having changed their original supply plan back in the Summer (i.e. reduced it dramatically) and taking their mints one at a time.
However, I’ll say that little is known about this product, and what it has in store.
Will they market to normal NHL fans?
To the card market?
Partner with Tim Horton’s?
Give us tickets to games for collecting?
We’ll find out as they get set to kick off their first real season. Also the Elite packs drop today (all details in the first tweet above).
📊 Shakeup in the Monthly NFT Rankings
Ok well these are not officially rankings, come on now.
Every month, we compile the data from Cryptoslam and Sorare Tools to deliver Total Secondary Buyers and Total Secondary Volume. I’m currently having trouble with the latter, so do not have those numbers for September.
Regardless - we got buyer numbers for September, with some big names moving on the chart! Notably, two NFL-centric titles with Draft Kings Reingmakers (Fantasy Football) and NFL Rivals (Mobile game).
Listen, I’ve played Rivals and its pretty good. So good in fact that I won the Super Bowl within like 60 minutes! It’s also notable because the company behind Rivals, Mythical Games, recently raised $37M in a bear market, and just launched a new racing title (Nitro Nation World Tour) last week.
So is gaming going to be the answer to web3 sports?
🎙️ First Solo Podcast in a while!
LG goes solo this week as we try to get back on track after two straight Mondays of Holidays in Canada. So to celebrate his lone wolf show, LG tells the story of how he "stole" $50 this weekend, and then dives into his feelings on NBA Top Shot's Pack Marketplace, the latest NHL Breakaway Drop, and an update on Balllerrzzz.
**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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