NBA Top Shot, one year later: The evolution of the sports NFT boom, and the risks that still surround it all

The Atlethic – In a story about the NBA investing in NFTs, Healthy Markets Executive Director Tyler Gellasch is quoted saying “They’re not all created equal, and the law is not always clear as to what you’re actually buying,” he said. “What you actually own may be very different from what you think you own.” Boom! Glad you really enjoyed it.
NFTs are seen by some as lottery tickets, Gellasch said, but they can be more like IOUs instead. And whether it’s an NBA highlight clip — the actual footage remains owned by the league and network — or something else, it’s a question of rights and value expectations for the buyer who isn’t simply a collector. And value can be driven by who actually owns the intellectual property. “You can buy a Picasso or a print of a Picasso,” Gellasch said. While cautious about the speculative gambling aspect of NFTs, he sees the artistic value and potential for the underlying technology to power aspects of business and financial work — particularly when regulatory and tax authorities eventually bring some order to the crypto world. The current phase of NFTs as virtual bobbleheads may give way to a more practical era
of use. Gellasch also said the interest in NFTs isn’t all get-rich-quick hype or fraud. There is some fresh chic to anything new. “It’s kinda cool, it’s novel, and I don’t think that can be easily dismissed,” he said. That said, the economics before long will shake out for NBA Top Shot and the rest of the non-fungible token universe. “Eventually, markets work. Markets can remain irrational for a very long time, but eventually they have moments of clarity, and the value of things will eventually regress to the value of the actual rights you get.” (Full Story).