A professional basketball league co-founded by rapper Ice Cube announced a way for fans and investors to purchase teams. That news led to Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) being involved in several large transactions for teams. Here’s the latest.
What Happened: Technology and Dogecoin investor Bill Lee, who is the chairman of MyDoge and co-founder of Craft Ventures, purchased all 25 fire-tier editions of the Aliens, a team in the Big3. The BIG3 is a professional 3-on-3 basketball league co-founded by Ice Cube.
The purchase price was around $600,000 and is the largest commercial Dogecoin cryptocurrency transaction in history, according to Wednesday’s press release. MyDoge is a self-custodial Dogecoin wallet and is incorporating MyDoge and Dogecoin into the fold.
“Having buy-in from Bill, who has done so much in the NFT and crypto world, confirms what we are doing here is a game-changer,” BIG3 co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz said. “We are thrilled to partner up with Bill and have the MyDoge and Dogecoin communities be represented by the Aliens. We have made history with this transaction.”
yo @icecube - if ya dig doge, me and the #DogeArmy will take one as well. @MyDogetip @thebig3 Ð4,615,420.69 🔥🏀 https://t.co/khXqbNoIfg
— bill lee 🚽 (@westcoastbill) May 4, 2022
The move was brought to Benzinga’s attention by Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus.
“Hey @benzinga, dis dude just tipped dis dude like 500 grand in dog money,” Markus tweeted.
Lee highlighted the purchase Wednesday with also taking a shot at some other NFTs.
“While others are buying NFT images of apes and owls, I believe that NFTs with utility are the next frontier. It is a dream to own a basketball team and the Big3 is shifting the NFT game by offering ownership rights such as licensing/IP, team voting/management, and merchandising,” Lee said.
The purchase follows an April announcement by BIG3 that it would offer non-fungible tokens tied to ownership of teams in the league.
DeGods, a NFT project built on the Solana blockchain, announced recently it bought all the Fire level NFTs of the Killer 3s team from the BIG3. Owners of DeGods NFTs will get access to up to 500 of the 975 lower level Gold NFTs in the team.
“This is probably the most fascinating experiment in the entire NFT space right now,” DeGods founder Frank DeGods said. “It’s cool because owning and operating a basketball team is a dream for millions of people. Now we get to make that dream true for our holders.”
Related Link: How To Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)
Why It’s Important: Along with the transaction, it was announced that the Aliens team will feature MyDoge and Dogecoin “prominently” on team jerseys. The team will also integrate MyDoge allowing players, coaches and teams to be able to receive Dogecoin tips on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR).
“The Doge Army and I look forward to making Dogecoin the people’s currency while helping our team hoist the championship trophy,” Lee said.
Along with Craft Ventures and Dogecoin, Lee is also an early investor in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), SpaceX, Neuralink, Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) and OpenSea.
DeGods also announced previously that it would be featured as a patch on Killer 3s jerseys and integrated into television broadcasts.
The BIG3 has a television rights deal with Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA)(NASDAQ:PARAA) for the upcoming 2022 season that will begin on June 18. Over 28 hours of BIG3 games will air on CBS and streaming platform Paramount+.
“We are thrilled to work with them (CBS) again as we enter into our fifth season. They understand our vision, see the passion of our fans and players, and have been an instrumental part of the league’s growth,” BIG3 CEO Chris Hannan said.
The 2021 BIG3 season had record viewership for the league, which came after the 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19. The league’s championship game hit a record of 1.47 million viewers.
BIG3 is offering team ownership in its 12 teams through NFTs priced at $25,000 or $5,000 each for the Fire (25) and Gold (975) tiers respectively. NFTs include voting rights, gameday experiences and VIP tickets. The Fire NFTs include IP and licensing rights. The league is expected to launch its public sale of NFTs this month.
“This is team ownership in the 21st century,” Ice Cube said. “We want fans to feel even more invested in their favorite squad, more connected to their favorite player, and provide them with the opportunity to grow with us. While other leagues are flirting with fan ownership, none of them have more meat on the bone than BIG3 team owners.”
