NBA Top Shot (NFT) is a blockchain-based platform that allows fans to buy, sell and trade Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) of historical events in the NBA. This could be steals, blocks, or even individual hoops that are now immortalized and marketed.^[1]

NBA Top Shot is a collectibles platform and a joint venture between the National Basketball Association, the NBA Players Association, and Dapper Labs that debuted in July of 2019.^[10]

When Dapper Labs released CryptoKitties in November 2017, it was widely regarded as the first widespread use of blockchain-based applications.^[12] It was the first popular use case for Bitcoin as a speculative investment outside of Bitcoin (BTC). CryptoKitties app demonstrated that Dapper Labs could create a widely known collectible, attracting the attention of the National Basketball Association.^[11]

The NBA collaborated with Dapper Labs to create its own version of a collectible digital asset.

NBA Top Shot is a crypto-collectible that can be bought as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) by consumers. Each item is linked to a blockchain, which is a digital ledger similar to those used for digital currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC).^[3]

The collectible component is just one aspect of the game, which also includes opportunities to show off collections, earn new tokens by completing in-app challenges, and a challenge feature in which players can use their team to play one-on-one games using the collective skills of the NBA stars a user has collected.^[14][6]

The first iteration focused on season moments from 2019 to 2020, but Dapper Labs also incorporated historical all-stars from the past.^[15] The tokens were offered in packs ranging in price from $9 to mid-$200. A peer-to-peer marketplace was included in the game for trading the tokens.^[7]

CryptoKitties, NBA Top Shot, and the Flow (Blockchain) are all created by Dapper Labs. Dapper Labs was founded in February 2018 with the goal of creating a more open and inclusive digital world, starting with games and entertainment. Flow was designed to show the influence of crypto extends well beyond currency. Flow is a brand-new blockchain that was designed from the ground up to enable a new generation of consumer apps, games, and the digital assets that fuel them.

Crypto-enabled applications built on Flow are compatible with scarce digital assets and peer-to-peer trading, smart contract and efficient global marketplaces, decentralized governance, user-controlled identity and privacy, and open platforms (permanent APIs) that serve as digital public goods and software that outlasts its creators. Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, GV (company), Samsung, and the creators of Dreamworks, Reddit, Coinbase, Zynga, and AngelList are among the notable investors in Dapper Labs.

The NBA cuts the highlights, and Dapper Labs determines how many of each highlight will be sold and numbered.

They put each highlight into digital packs, just like conventional trading cards, and sell the packs for $9 to $230 on the official NBA Top Shot website.^[16] The cost of a pack is determined by the quality of the highlight, the player's stardom level, and the card's exclusivity.

When you buy a pack, the highlights are saved in your encrypted, safe highlight wallet, where they can be "showcased" or resold on the NBA Top Shot Marketplace.^[8]

According to Action Network, five sales worth over $20,000 U.S. dollars have already occurred on the global, open, peer-to-peer, always-on marketplace, including a unique LeBron James highlight that sold for almost $71,000.^[9]

A user needs to go to https://nbatopshot.com/ to get started with NBA Top Shot.

Then one needs to sign up for a Dapper account.

This Dapper account acts as a digital wallet for buying and selling packs, Moments, and transferring funds to the platform.^[17] A user can fund their wallet with cryptocurrency or regular payment methods like credit cards.^[18][19]

NBA Top Shot Moments can be purchased in one of two ways: as a bundle on the Top Shot website or as individual moments on the peer-to-peer marketplace at https://nbatopshot.com/search.^[20] A user can also discover new ways to earn moments, such as getting presents from other users, completing tasks and receiving a reward, winning showcase challenges, and other yet-to-be-announced techniques.^[21]

NBA Top Shot packs are available for purchase on the Top Shot website, where they can be accessed on the home page as well as the packs page (https://nbatopshot.com/packs).^[22] The most often available commons base packs, which cost $9, can appear on the site at any time.^[23] Top Shot will announce any non-base backs that are in higher demand due to their scarcity at least eight hours before they become available (often via email).^[24]

Ahead of them becoming available, a user needs to go to the website and join the waiting room; at the designated drop time, they will randomly assign an order for all persons in the waiting room, and then if a user's number is below the total number of packs available, they will be able to buy a pack.^[8] A smaller percentage of drops are “stress tests” where the announcement will appear only a few min ahead of the pack drop being available.

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Top Shot packs have previously ranged in price from $9 for a Common pack with three Common moments to $999 for a Legendary pack with a Legendary moment, numerous Rare moments, and multiple Common moments.

Additional packs are available to round out the pricing range, and the costs are published along with the pack drop information.^[48]

Each pack from the second edition of the 2021 NBA Playoffs contains two Playoff Moments, one from the First Round and one from the Second Round, as well as three Base Set Moments from Series 2.

This drop features the following legendary moments:

1 x common Hustle and Show

4 x common Series 2 Base Set

There are eight different Hustle and Show common Moments in this Limited Edition common drop, each numbered to 18,000.

It also comes with four more Series 2 Base Set Moments, each with a different edition size.

This drop contains 260 Base Set Moments, including 15 never-before-seen Moments, 32 Three-Star Rookie Moments, and 63 Top Shot Debut Moments in total.

Collectors must have at least two Moments when they enter the line to be eligible for this drop.

Top Shot usually always has a challenge going on, an event in which users are rewarded for collecting specified moments within a set amount of time.

When the challenge period expires, a collector who has all of the moments in their collection will be granted a challenge prize, which has always been additional Top Shot moments and is known at the time the challenge is announced.^[50] On the Active Challenges page of the Top Shot website (https://nbatopshot.com/challenges), users may see the current challenges as well as prior challenges that have been run and the awards for those challenges.^[51] When accomplishing these, keep in mind that the pricing of moments in a challenge typically drop significantly once the challenge is completed.^[52] To further understand challenge dynamics, the platform suggests visiting the OTM challenge site (https://www.otmnft.com/challenges/).^[53]

Many collectors love having and displaying a complete collection of items.

NBA Top Shot uses challenges to assist collectors to understand what new treasures are available in a collection while also rewarding those who have and keep a complete set as new Moments are released.

In a challenge, you must gather a certain number of specified categories of Moments in a certain amount of time.

Normally, you'll need between 9 and 14 Moments to finish the task, and you'll have between one and three weeks to do it.

Once you've gathered all of the requisite Moments, your task is simple: keep them until the challenge countdown timer runs out.^[53] When a user goes to the challenges page, they'll be able to see which challenges are presently active and how far they've progressed on each one.^[55]

A snapshot is collected as soon as a challenge timer expires to identify which accounts match all of the challenge conditions. The platform then compiles and randomizes a list of everyone who qualifies for the challenge prize, then mints and distributes the stated challenge reward in that random order, usually the same day the challenge countdown timer completes its course. You might get the reward's first serial number. You will only earn one challenge reward if you complete the task five times. Because of the way challenges function, the rewards are almost always the set's rarest treasures.^[53] To guarantee that they don't become too rare, preventing future collectors from completing the set, a minimum amount of challenge rewards will always be minted (this number has been 150 for rare set challenges in If 156 tasks are accomplished, three further awards will be minted and allocated at the platform's discretion to resolve customer service complaints, for a total of 159 rewards in this case.^[57]

Once the incentives have been distributed, NBA Top Shot will retire that Moment, which means there will be no more collectibles from that play in that set.

That means that if only 134 challenges are accomplished, an additional 16 rewards will be minted for later distribution.^[58]

A user can look for a specific team or player that they might want to buy.

Once they've located a player, they need to click on it and a drop-down window will appear, displaying all serial numbers as well as the asking price for each.

The lowest asking price will be placed first on the website, and it will be the first option a user can see.

However, scrolling up to a lower serial number may be good to determine if the pricing difference between a high serial number and a lower serial number is significant.

Once a user has selected a moment they like, they need to click on it to be brought to Dapper Labs, where they can confirm their bank details and purchase the moment. They'll exit the statistics page and be directed to the NBA Top Shot website, where they'll see if their purchase was successful.

To gift an NBA Top Shot moment a user needs to go to their moments in their NBA Top Shot account and you choose the moment.

When they enter this moment there is an option to sell or to gift the moment.

Clicking gift and then typing in the username of the person is the way to gift it.

Then a user needs to click 'send' and the recipient will receive their NBA Top Shot moment within 15 minutes.

If a user wants to sell a moment on the NBA top shot, they need to go to their user area's moment section and select the moment.

After that, they'll be asked to confirm whether or not they want to sell the moment on the NBA Top Shot marketplace, as well as the price they want to sell it for.

Normally, a seller will receive an email confirming the purchase; but, during high-volume periods, this may take longer.