Michael Jordan, Will Smith Participate in $305 Million Investment in NBA Top Shot Maker

With collaboration from the NBA, highlight clips have become NFT collectible cards. Canadian technology company Dapper Labs continues its lucrative streak by nabbing a whopping $305 million dollars from new investors.

Private Equity Firm Cotue Rakes in Big Names

The New York investment company Coatue Management, responsible for several other technology investments, has sealed a lucrative deal for Dapper Labs. Household NBA names like Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson are just a few on the extensive list. It doesn’t stop with basketball. Entertainment industry notables like Will Smith, Ashton Kutcher, and Shawn Mendes are also in the mix.

Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot, first gained fame for the video game CryptoKitties. The project quickly became one of the most notable NFT collectibles on the Ethereum blockchain.

Now, with NBA Top Shot’s meteoric ascent, Dapper Labs continues to solidify its rise with an extra $305 million investment.

With the increasing international presence of Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, and their collaboration with Dapper Labs, the highlight reel moments that will inevitably be captured on it should be projected to generate even more millions for the company.

What Exactly Are NBA Top Shot Collectibles?

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are the craze in the fresh world of digital assets. They use advanced cryptographic technology to make sure that a digital asset is yours forever. The aura of uniqueness and scarcity that they’ve created has made artists fortunes, most notably Beeple’s $69 million NFT art sale.

NBA Top Shot uses these same tokens to capture NBA highlight moments. Instead of artworks, however, they’re turned forever as collectible cards in video format.

In the span of 6 months, these captured moments that were once worth $175,000 have increased to $20 million. Given how young the industry is and how it exploded into the mainstream, NFTs are looking primed for more.