🔊 NFTs Are Going Mobile

GM. Welcome to The Hype Report where we break down the latest news, stories & happenings around sports & web3.

Sending many thoughts and prayers to the families of Michigan State University students Brian Fraser, Alexandria Verner, and Arielle Anderson after they were killed in a school shooting this past Monday, as well as our condolences to the entire East Lansing community.

Here's What You Need To Know This Week 📝

• NBA Top Shot Announces Mobile App For NFTs

• Galaxy Arena Making History with First Ever “PHYGITAL” Boxing Match

• LeBron James NFTs Soar After He Breaks NBA Scoring Record

• Quick Hits & What To Listen To

NBA Top Shot Announces Mobile App For NFTs 🔮

NBA Top Shot is coming to an App store near you.

The officially licensed basketball NFT platform which has generated more than $1 billion in sales to date, is launching on smartphone apps through Apple’s iOS App Store and Google’s Android Play Store.

With nearly 75% of its traffic coming from mobile web - this is the first step in the company's plans to become mobile-first.

The app aims to provide a smoother way to access and buy digital collectibles on the go.

It also has several capabilities such as:

• View collection of NBA Top Shot NFTs

• The latest trending moments

• Notifications for upcoming drops and challenges

• Ability to purchase starter packs of NFT moments

Dapper Labs, the company that runs Top Shot, is initially releasing a limited version of the app.

Coming down the pipeline later is a marketplace, trading mechanics, and pack swaps.

Web3 startups and NFT marketplaces have had to restrict the ability to transact NFT assets via mobile apps due to Apple and Google expecting a cut of sales.

That hurdle potentially causes primary sales to be more expensive for mobile users, but really throws a twist into the idea of secondary market sales between users.

It’s something that web3 startups have been debating the past months since the tech giants clarified their stance towards NFT sales and use.

Eventually, the goal of the Top Shot mobile app is to enable peer-to-peer marketplace trades between users, despite these challenges.

Diving into mobile signals a new path as the company finds its place in the ever-evolving web3 space.

The Top Shot app is the first step towards “bridging that divide” between clunky web3 experiences and hopefully a larger audience of smartphone users that don’t have easy access to NFT experiences.

Here's the change visualized for NBA Top Shot:

​The old way:

​Go to nbatopshot.com → log in → select an NFT → go to checkout → enter credit card details / billing address → complete purchase.

​The new way:

​Open NBA Top Shot app → select an NFT → click the Apple Pay button

Pretty significant pivot.

Dapper Labs, which developed the Flow blockchain, also operates NFL All Day and UFC Strike.

No solid plans to launch apps for either of these platforms were stated but best believe it's coming.

Galaxy Arena Making History with First Ever “PHYGITAL” Boxing Match 🥊

Leeeeettssssget ready to rummmmblleeeeeeeeee!!!

Galaxy Arena, an AI-based metaverse hub is hosting a “Phygital” fight for the first time in the history of combat sports, between Roy Jones Jr vs. NDO Champ.

The fight, which premiers May 13th, 2023, will be available to viewers in the metaverse after being captured volumetrically (that's a hell of a word) and channeled into the VR space.

The AI-based platform features a fitness center, an entertainment hub, and a virtual tower that visitors can tour in a one-of-a-kind metaverse journey.

Here's more about Galaxy Arena's three major aspects:

The Galaxy Arena Entertainment Venue: a cutting-edge virtual metaverse arena that can host a wide range of events using streaming and video capture technologies.

The Galaxy Gym: a state-of-the-art VR metaverse that lets you connect with your favorite athletes from all over the world through interactive health and fitness mini-games.

The Galaxy Tower: a financial hub with a trading floor-style lobby that gives users access to different investment options. The rest of the tower is dedicated to the Sky Lounge social nightclub and celestial casino. The lounge features a collection of 20,000 unique NFT units divided into luxury suites, lounges, office spaces, and digital real estate.

Galaxy uses the latest developments in hyper-realistic graphics and motion-capture tech, which is putting the platform in a position to become a leading X-to-Earn metaverse hub.

Brought To You By Outer Edge

I'm excited to announce that we're partnering with Outer Edge LA (formerly NFT LA) this year!

Outer Edge is an experiential celebration of all things at the edge of Web3. This year, Outer Edge LA will capture the spirit of the community and the meaningful work each individual contributes to the greater Web3 whole — by inviting you to immerse yourself in the experience and build and shape it.

Over the next few weeks, we will share Outer Edge LA news, updates, and ways you can become involved and even attend the event.

Whether it's art, music, fashion, epic parties, entertainment, or tech, Outer Edge LA is a place for people to come together to create something fun and impactful.

The event will take place in the LA Convention Center on March 20th-23rd, 2023.

Get 10% off your ticket with the code Hype10 —> www.outeredge.live

LeBron James NFTs Soar After He Breaks NBA Scoring Record 🏀

LeBron James NFTs are flying left and right off the court - just like he does on it.

Lebron officially broke the NBA's all-time scoring record, on February 8th. 

According to NBA Top Shot, the sales of LeBron's NFTs surged in anticipation of the momentous event and even continued to do so after he broke it.

The platform has seen nearly $234,000 worth of LeBron NFT sales through its secondary marketplace, with over 2,500 individual sales being recorded, marking the largest total for LeBron on NBA Top Shot since May 2022.

One NFT moment sold for $13,500, making it the largest Top Shot sale of the week.

The impact of LeBron's record-breaking feat isn't limited to just secondary market sales.

On Wednesday, Dapper Labs dropped 100,000 packs of NFT collectibles at $9 each, with each buyer receiving an additional airdropped pack starting on February 23rd.

Some of these buyers will also get the record-breaking moment NFT.

Only 99 editions of LeBron's record-breaking shot will be minted on NBA Top Shot, with 25 reserved for the top collectors and 25 for the top LeBron collectors on the leaderboard.

The rest will be distributed among buyers of this week's $9 NFT pack.

The momentum around LeBron is also extending to other NFT platforms, such as Sorare NBA.

The officially-licensed NFT fantasy basketball game supposedly auctioned off a 1/1 unique, LeBron James Sorare player card with a final sale price of $69,165 a few days ago.

Quick Hype 🎯

1️⃣ Are AI Coaches the Future? Will Bill Belichick Be Replaced By AI? Here's How Global Digitization is Transforming Sports (Not necessarily web3-related, but interesting nonetheless).

2️⃣ Why PUMA Is Launching NFT PFPs With 10KTF: Puma is revving up its web3 roadmap for its 75 anniversary year. Last week the sports brand announced the release of Super PUMA PFP NFTs to complement its ongoing web3 project the Nitro Collection.

3️⃣ Steph Curry’s NFT Project Showed Promise of Web3. Then It Disappeared? Following FTX's implosion, owners of Steph Curry's 2974 Collection NFTs have been left asking questions.

4️⃣ Crypto Football Fan Tokens Prove An Own Goal For Many. Are sports fan tokens a huge wave of the future or just a passing novelty?

5️⃣ Chiliz: Reshaping the Web3 sports space with Ankr. Chiliz, the global blockchain technology business for the Web3 sports and entertainment industries; creators of fan tokens and the Socios.com fan engagement and rewards app, selected Ankr for its unique combination of cloud-native and blockchain-native capabilities, making it the perfect infrastructure provider for the development of this cutting-edge blockchain.

What To Listen To 🎧

Have you ever thought about launching your own NFT project?

Gary Vee, founder of VaynerX, social media sensation, and creator of the VeeFriends NFT community drops some solid knowledge about what it takes to create a successful NFT project and the future of the web3 space.

Even though this space is relatively new, I consider him to be one of the OG's in the game and someone who's thinking about web3 in the right way.

Check out the full podcast interview ⬇️

Appreciate you reading!

Know someone building a company at the intersection of sports x web3? I'd love to connect with them if so.

Talk to you again next Sunday,

Malcolm

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial or business advice in any capacity. The information shared is my thoughts & opinions and does not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity, or sponsor.

The contents of this newsletter also should not be used in any public or private domain without the author's express permission. The contents of this newsletter should not be used for any commercial activity, for example, research report, consultancy activity, or paywalled article, without the author's express permission.