Stephen Curry (National Basketball Association) released a series of 2,974 nonfungible tokens. They feature digital copies of his shoes that he used to set the 3-point record.
Priced at $333 and already sold out, the NFT drop entitles buyers to sport the shoes across a trio of Ethereum-based metaverse platforms: Eric Schiermeyer’s Gala Games, Animoca Brands’ The Sandbox and Decentraland. Net proceeds from the sale will be donated to organizations supporting access to sport, according to the dedicated website set up in collaboration with Curry’s real-world sneaker brand, Under Armour Inc.
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NFTs have seen a surge in popularity thanks to celebrity endorsements, high-end examples at astronomical prices, and a speculation rush. Virtual Genesis Curry Flows sneakers offer a first attempt to fulfill one of the NFT promises: a way for a person buy a digital good once but then be able to use that product in different games and virtual experiences. One feature they’ve inherited from the gaming realm is the loot box mechanic: there are five variants of the shoes with increasing scarcity and each owner doesn’t know which they’ll get in advance.
This website directs interested parties to OpenSea’s secondary market. It is where most of the NFT speculation frenzy has occurred. Curry fans and the nearly 3000 NBA 3-pointers he plays may have to deal with other traders on the scarcity. However, Chainalysis’s recent study has shown that NFT profits are largely concentrated in a few insiders.
