Major Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck announced that it will launch support for the non-fungible tokens (NFT) created by Dapper Labs, best known as the creator of collectible cartoon cat figurines game CryptoKitties, where the most expensive card was sold for about $170,000 in late 2018.
According to an Oct. 6 announcement, the collaboration will allow the over 2.1 million Coincheck users to trade blockchain collectibles by Dapper Labs. The collectibles firm has high hopes for adoption in the Japanese market:
“The Japanese art, comics, and gaming markets are some of the most vibrant in the world. The era of NFTs is still in its infancy, but the Japanese community has been one of the biggest supporters of digital collectibles,” the company said in the release. “Through this important partnership with Coincheck, a pioneer in our space, we will be able to bring NFTs to a much wider and very passionate audience.”
NFTs are a special type of tokens that are non-fungible, which means that every unit is unique, identifiable and non-interchangeable. Many believe this peculiar kind of tokens to be the perfect fit for digital collectibles and the tokenization—or digital representation—of real-world assets. The interest in the digital collectibles market is growing, as the market is showing great promise now that NFTs have provided a way to create non-fungible digital tokens.
Coincheck executive officer Kensuke Amo complimented DapperLabs’ innovation in the NFT space and its ability to build relations with major intellectual property holders—such as the NBA and UFC, and even Dr. Seuss.
NBA Top Shots launches
As Modern Consensus reported in August last year, Dapper Labs is the company behind NBA Top Shot—collectible NFT tokens featuring NBA scenes. The NBA Top Shot collectables entered the public beta phase on Oct. 1.
The NBA Top Shots are multimedia “Moments” of varying scarcity, featuring game-altering Buzzer Beaters, monster dunk Throwdowns, and new NBA Playoffs plays, according to Dapper Labs. New Moments drop every week. During the closed beta testing, 43,000 packs were sold, with 10,500 Moments traded in the Marketplace.
“I’m a big believer in the fact that technology can make people’s lives better, and blockchain is one of those kinds of technologies,” said Orlando Magic all-star Aaron Gordon. “NBA Top Shot, on a scalable blockchain like Flow, is the first time fans can own a piece of the on-court action, and who wouldn’t want that?”
Go with the Flow
On Oct. 6, Dapper Labs also completed a Dutch auction of 25 million Flow tokens, the native currency of its new Flow blockchain, at a final price of 38 cents.
Dapper Labs decided to create its own blockchain after the 2017 launch of CryptoKitties clogged the Ethereum blockchain so badly it virtually ground to a halt. Ethereum has been experiencing similar—though not as severe—problems lately, with decentralized finance (DeFi) traffic overwhelming the blockchain’s capacity to the point where the gas price for completing transactions have been reported as high as $50 or more, rather than a few cents.
The Flow tokens now begin a 12-month lock-up phase, with half being released in a year and the rest in stages over the following year.
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