NBA Top Shot Was Just A Teaser

December 18, 2021

|In Weekend Recap

|By Osprey Team

NBA Top Shot was just a teaser.

Sports and crypto have gone all in and there’s no looking back.

Monday, Nike announced the acquisition of viral sneaker designer RTFKT Studios to “deliver next generation collectibles that merge culture and gaming.”

This is a move that will look definitive in the rear view mirror.

John Donahoe, President and CEO of Nike shared,

This acquisition is another step that accelerates Nike’s digital transformation and allows us to serve athletes and creators at the intersection of sport, creativity, gaming and culture.

Read the press release here.

Sports x Crypto Continued…

Michael Jordan jumped on board after he and his son announced their first tech venture called Heir.

Heir is a “next-generation holding company that will build culturally-inspired consumer brands rooted in tech and entertainment.”

The platform will be built on the Solana blockchain. Here’s Bitcoin.com with more.

Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures closed a deal with Coinbase for content and education around crypto, NFT news and creation, philanthropy, and more.

FTX partnered with the Golden State Warriors, becoming the team’s official crypto platform and NFT Marketplace.

And in case you missed it, Steph Curry broke the all-time 3-point field goals record at The Garden in NYC on December 14.

Here’s ESPN with the highlights.

Sports and crypto are a dynamic duo.

Like Mike said, The ceiling is the roof.

Raise The Roof

Speaking of the roof, The United States raised the debt ceiling by an additional $2.5T on Thursday to prevent the first-ever U.S. default.

The capital is supposed to cover its obligations into 2023.

Money printer goes brrr… and so forth.

Here’s CNBC with more.

Even More NFT News…

Adidas Originals debuted its NFT collection on Friday.

Here’s a sneak peak —

Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch, released Fractal, a Solana-based marketplace for gaming NFTs.

Kan commented,

I believe that Solana is the future of gaming.

Here’s a great write-up via TechCrunch.

And here’s a curated list of resources for builders / artists hacking NFTs on Solana.

Dapper Labs helped launch a Dr. Seuss-themed NFT platform.

Shopify now allows you to sell NFTs on its platform. Click here to join the Beta.

Kraken plans to launch an NFT platform “in the near future.”

And here’s a great read via Julia Maltby,

NFTs: The Next Killer Financial Asset

1M Followers

This week, Polkadot and Polygon’s Twitter accounts surpassed 1M followers.

It’s probably nothing…

Crypto Research Reports

As 2021 comes to a close, The Block and Messari.io shared crypto research reports looking ahead at 2022.

Check ‘em out —

Digital Asset 2022 Outlook — The Block Research

Crypto Theses for 2022 — Messari.io

₿itcoin Endowment

On Wednesday, Jack Dorsey announced the board members of his Bitcoin development endowment fund in collaboration with Jay-Z.

The ₿trust fund will work on Bitcoin development initially focused in Africa and India. Check out Jack’s first tweet on the matter here.

And here are the newly appointed board members —

Carla Kirk-Cohen
Abubakar Nur Khalil
Obi Nwosu
Ojoma Ochai

We love to see it. Here’s the Block with more.

All-Time Hodlers High

Bitcoin non-zero addresses reached a new all-time high.

There are 39,374,638 Bitcoin addresses holding at least a little Bitcoin.

More people own Bitcoin globally and the number continues to rise. This speaks to demand of a finite asset as well as expansion on the adoption curve.

Here’s the chart via Lark Davis:

Listen to This —

Here are some great podcasts to listen to during the holiday week.

Proof provides an artist spotlight on Nicolas Sassoon. Nicolas is a Franco-Canadian artist who plays with early computer imaging processes to render visions of architecture, landscapes, and natural forces into digital animations, installations, prints, and sculptures.

Fascinating Listen.

The folks at Freakonomics had a fantastic episode about how The Art Market Is In Massive Disruption.

Here are a few questions they covered:

– Is art really meant to be an “asset class”?

– Will the digital revolution finally democratize a market that just keeps getting more elitist?

– And what will happen to the last painting Alice Neel ever made?

Tune in today.

Doug Colkitt, high-frequency trader and builder of decentralized exchange, CrocSwap, joined Patrick O’Shannessy to talk about The Evolution of Markets.

Listen here.

Rory Sutherland and Pete Dyson talk Transport for Humans with A Load of BS (The Behavioral Science Podcast)

The two talk about designing transport systems for humans rather than engineers.

Check it out.