Jazz To Sell Iconic Team Moments As NFTs
Sep 2, 2021, 10:52 AM
Photo illustration of the litecoin, ripple and ethereum cryptocurrency 'altcoins' (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz will become the first team in the NBA to enter the crypto business. On Thursday, the team announced it would begin selling Non Fungible Tokens in the form of a virtual locker room experience, and iconic team moments.
Non Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are unique digital properties that can not be traded or replaced by an identical item, though they can be sold.
Think of them like a one-of-a-kind piece of art that can be purchased and hung on your wall, but rather than sitting in your home, they exist as digital codes that you own and are recorded into a digital ledger called blockchain.
The Utah Jazz become the first sports team to create an NFT combined with a virtual locker room experience 🖲
𝙻𝙴𝙰𝚁𝙽 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙴 𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴: https://t.co/7XlAhozaRg pic.twitter.com/PttcHvohAD
— utahjazz (@utahjazz) September 2, 2021
With the release, Jazz fans will be able to own iconic moments from the team’s history, though exactly what those moments are, and in what form they exist in has yet to be announced.
While the Jazz are the first NBA team to offer NFTs, they aren’t the first to mix sports and the crypto business.
Last year NBA Top Shot began selling and trading highlights from the league as NFTs similar to trading cards, much like the Jazz are likely to be doing. Fans could wait in digital lines in hopes of purchasing a deck of NFTs, just as collectors may have purchased baseball or basketball cards in the past.
Going live now!!! @nba_topshot packs opening and giveaways! Tune in!! https://t.co/Z3ttVBWwWz
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) March 6, 2021
NBA Top Shot quickly became a popular business among hopeful collectors with rare highlights in the form of NFTs selling for upwards of $200,000.
Jazz fans have to set up a digital wallet through Rarible, a software company that allows creators to issue and sell custom crypto assets as NFTs. The purchases are made using Etherium, one of the most popular forms of cryptocurrency that can be bought using a regular credit or debit card.
The Jazz NFTs are set to go on sale on September 7 and fans can add their names to the team’s waitlist now.
