The NBA’s Golden State Warriors have become the first major professional sports team to sell its own non-fungible tokens.
These tokens, or NFTs, will be officially licensed digital memorabilia the team is calling its “legacy” collection.
An NFT is a verifiable digital asset vouchsafed by blockchain technology. NFTs are not exchangeable like currencies, as each is unique and can’t be replicated. NFTs use blockchain, the technology ledger backing cryptocurrencies like bitcoin BTCUSD, -1.49% and ethereum ETHUSD, +1.81%, which are databases of linked information to record ownership or transactions of a product.
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The Warriors’s NFT collection features digital videos of the team’s championship rings over the franchise’s history.
“The digital collectibles excitement is palpable,” Warriors Chief Revenue Officer Brandon Schneider wrote to MarketWatch in an email. “We see NFTs and digitization of our business as a mainstay to engage our fans around the world. As an organization, we are constantly evaluating ways to be creative and innovate and launching this special NFT Collection is the latest evolution for us in that space.”
The Golden State Warriors says the proceeds from the auction, which ends this Saturday, will go to support Warriors Community Foundation, an organization that “supports education and youth development to promote thriving students, schools and communities.”
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The National Basketball Association itself has already gotten into the NFT space with its widely popular NBA Top Shot. Over $ 547 million worth of transactions have already occurred on NBA Top Shot, according to token monitoring site CryptoSlam.
NFTs have exploded in popularity of late. In the past few months, people have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in totality on these digital assets like the “Disaster Girl” meme and digital art like one from the artist known as Beeple, which sold for $ 70 million.