NBA Top Shot says that LeBron NFT sales are going up, and a pack drop that could give buyers his record-setting moment has already sold out.
On Tuesday, LeBron James scored his 38,888th point, which put him ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 39-year-old mark in the process. Since then, the hype about LeBron seems to be driving up sales of NBA Top Shot NFTs, including packs that could give buyers an NFT of the record-breaking shot.
Dapper Labs told Decrypt that sales of LeBron James NFTs have gone through the roof since Sunday, February 5. This was expected to happen as the expected time got closer. From Sunday until this morning, the platform’s secondary market sold nearly $234,000 worth of LeBron NFTs.
This is the highest total for James on NBA Top Shot since May 2022, when he had nearly 2,500 individual NFT sales. DappRadar data indicates that one of these moments sold for $13,500, making it the most expensive Top Shot sale of the week.
The Waiting Room is now open.
— NBA Top Shot (@NBATopShot) February 8, 2023
The final 25,000 packs go on sale at 2pm ET.
Starting Feb 23, anyone who bought a pack will get an airdrop that could have one of 99 Legendary Record-Breaking Moments.
This is just the start of a star-studded February: https://t.co/5rJnHCBTRP pic.twitter.com/qMmxpY9ySW
However, LeBron’s influence has not been limited to secondary market sales. On Wednesday, Dapper Labs hosted a new drop of 100,000 packs of NFT collectibles for $9 apiece. Each customer will be airdropped a free additional pack with a single NFT beginning on February 23—and some of those purchasers will get an NFT of the record-breaking moment.
Just 99 editions of LeBron’s shot will be minted on NBA Top Shot. Already, 25 of them have been allocated for the platform’s top overall collectors based on their user score, which is gained through trading NFTs and completing gamified challenges.
Up to 25 more will be awarded by February 16 to the top LeBron collectors on the leaderboard. The rest will be given to those who bought the $9 NFT pack this week.
NBA Top Shot came out in 2020 and was a big reason why the NFT market grew quickly in 2021. However, sales and prices of NFTs have declined sharply since then. According to CryptoSlam, there have been about $1.05 billion worth of marketplace trades on the platform so far.
Over the past week, there have been just over $1 million worth of trades on the Marketplace. This is likely due in part to the “LeBron bump.” According to CryptoSlam, this is a 35% rise from the seven days before.
There may be more interest in other NFT platforms because of how popular LeBron James has become. Sorare NBA, an officially licensed Ethereum NFT fantasy basketball game, is currently auctioning off a one-of-a-kind James trading card. With almost four days left in the auction, the highest bid is currently 5 ETH, which is about $7,600.
Last weekend, Sorare NBA broke its own record for an NFT sale when a one-of-one Giannis Antetokounmpo NFT sold for 113.9 ETH, which was over $187,000 at the time. That made the highest price Sorare NBA had ever sold for in ETH triple.
On the other hand, a LeBron James NFT moment sold through an off-chain auction in April 2021, when NBA Top Shot was at its peak, for almost $388,000.
Content Source: decrypt.com
Cover Image Source: latimes.com
