Curry joins NFT craze with $180,000 investment

Newly minted member of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, former back-to-back NBA MVP Stephen Curry has taken a plunge into the NFT world.

Late Friday evening, Curry updated his Twitter profile photo with that of a cartoon ape. But not just any cartoon ape, this ape, in particular, is one of 10,000 other apes which are part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. It also came with a hefty price tag of 55 ETH, which has a current market value of $180,000.

BAYC is not just a collection of NFT art pieces but is an exclusive club of sorts in which entry to the club requires possessing one of the prized Bored Apes. Their website includes more information on what the club is and how it works.

BAYC is a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs—unique digital collectibles living on the Ethereum blockchain. Your Bored Ape doubles as your Yacht Club membership card, and grants access to members-only benefits, the first of which is access to THE BATHROOM, a collaborative graffiti board. Future areas and perks can be unlocked by the community through roadmap activation.

The seven-time all-star even went on the BAYC discord server after becoming a member and posted a selfie.

The Apes initially sold directly from BAYC for just 0.08 ETH a piece. They can now only be purchased from OpenSea, which is a peer-to-peer marketplace for crypto collectibles and NFTs, which is where Curry purchased his. Before the three-time champ invested in his NFT it sold for 1.5 ETH or currently $4,875, three months ago. Like many things in the business world, supply and demand control the marketplace, and with NFTs there are no exceptions. Now with Curry being a member of this exclusive community, one would assume the market rate for the Bored Apes will skyrocket even quicker than they already have.

The sharpshooter is no stranger to the Tech Investment space as he spearheaded his SC30 Inc. company in 2019. SC30inc. manages Curry’s investments, brand partnerships, and philanthropic ventures. Curry sat on an SF Disrupt panel a few years back and spoke about his investments in tech startups:

"It's about opportunity," Curry said. "At first it started as pure intrigue. You want to get your feet wet and learn. We have a history of a startup of our own, so being on that side than being on this side-- from an investment standpoint. Right now, being in the NBA, that is a short period of my life: from 21, and hopefully, I can play another six years. So you want to think about what you want to do for the rest of your life. Hopefully, we're setting up the groundwork and the framework for success in this space."

You can add NFTs to Curry’s growing list of investments in the tech space. As he said, “it’s about opportunity”, and with the NFT space not quite making it to our everyday lives just yet, the investment opportunity seems ripe.




FeatureJoseph AziziStephen Curry, Investment, Tech1 Comment