According to Dapper Labs co-founder Mik Naayem, the company’s latest sports NFT platforms are attracting more users as Flow grows.
- The Flow blockchain ecosystem has recently hit new highs in terms of daily transactions and wallet signups.
- In January, Dapper Labs made its UFC Strike NFT platform public, but its NFL All Day platform is still in closed beta.
Dapper Labs is off to a fast start in the year 2022. Its UFC Strike NFT platform went live last month, its NFL All Day marketplace is about to go live, and NBA Top Shot is on the rise once more. On top of that, the company’s Flow blockchain ecosystem is expanding, especially as IP holders flock to the platform.
UFC Strike, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s long-awaited NFT marketplace, debuted on January 23 with an initial drop that saw 100,000 packs of NFTs sell for $50 each in a matter of hours. The UFC collectibles, like NBA Top Shot, are based on existing video highlights and may be bought and sold on the secondary market.
Dapper Labs co-founder and chief business officer Mik Naayem told this week that the launch attracted a large number of new users to the platform. He thinks that 60,000 new users joined the first drop, making it the highest influx of new Flow wallet signups since the demand for NBA Top Shot peaked in February 2021.
“It’s really reinforcing this idea that Dapper can make products that bring new audiences into the NFT sector, and then they can go down the rabbit hole,” Naayem added, estimating that approximately 80% of UFC Strike collectors have never heard of Flow before. “That excites us tremendously.”
🚨The Marketplace is Open🚨
Don't miss your chance at this limited edition NFT of Israel Adesanya's iconic victory at #UFC243. Grab the best Moments from the Octagon, and get rewarded. #OwnTheGlory
Shop now: https://t.co/wSLztHTlLC pic.twitter.com/1VNNDfNx5a
— UFC Strike (@UFCStrikeNFT) February 18, 2022
NFL All Day, which started in closed beta in December, has seen a large number of new consumers transact on its limited platform. “It’s reaching all of the criteria we expected,” Naayem added, citing more than $5 million in revenue generated during the trial period. The public launch date has yet to be disclosed.
Even NBA Top Shot, the platform that established Dapper Labs as a household name in the sports world and aided in the mainstreaming of NFTs, has seen recent growth. Top Shot experienced a flurry of activity in the spring of last year, but trading volume and excitement dwindled the remainder of the year, and it didn’t benefit from the broader NFT market boom in the fall.
According to CryptoSlam data, Top Shot had the most transactions in a single month in January 2022, with over 1.8 million, and its $59 million in secondary NFT sales was the largest in a single month since April 2021. The increase coincided with the debut of a marketing campaign starring Kevin Durant, propelling Top Shot’s lifetime secondary market trade volume beyond $900 million.
He added of NBA Top Shot, “We’ve started to develop a much more fundamental grasp of what customers want out of this product.” “While we’ve seen an increase in new users, what’s been more exciting is the involvement of current users, and the community and product teams really hitting that intersection point.”
The introduction of flash challenges, which encourage users to obtain certain NFT moments that correspond to the real-world NBA season, has contributed to the increase in engagement. Users who finish the tasks are awarded with limited-edition NFTs that could be lucrative. Such interactions, according to Naayem, provide NFTs “greater meaning and utility.”
Dapper Labs is expanding beyond NFTs with the launch of Dapper Collectives, a new branch that will focus on DAOs, or decentralised autonomous organisations, which have become a popular way to organise online communities. According to Naayem, the initiative’s initial products could be released in Q2.
Adapting to the Situation
While this is happening, the Flow blockchain ecosystem continues to expand as major and small entrepreneurs use the network for their own NFT initiatives and decentralised apps.
The recent release of nWay’s Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022 mobile game, which includes NFT digital pins minted on Flow, as well as the anticipated debut of NFT avatar platform Genies later this quarter, were also mentioned by Naayem. Other significant Flow initiatives he mentioned include Matrix World, a virtual land metaverse game, and Cryptoys, an NFT digital toys platform.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
