NBA Star NFT Sells for $187,000 on Sorare

The single edition non-fungible token (NFT) of professional basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo was sold for 113.9 ETH ($187,000) on Sorare NBA over the weekend.

Sorare NBA is a licensed NFT-driven fantasy basketball game, and the sale set a new milestone, being the platform’s highest single transaction since its launch in October 2022.
The 1/1 Antetokounmpo NFT was auctioned through Sorare NBA’s Ethereum-based platform. The sale price of the NFT was thrice the price of the previous sale, which was an Anthony Davis NFT sold for 49 ETH (more than $62,000) in December.
Aside from his single edition sale on Sorare, Antetokounmpo NFTs have been sold for high prices in previous years.
In February 2021, Antetokounmpo recorded an on-chain sale of $95,000 on NBA Top Shot on the Flow blockchain. To date, the transaction is the 16th largest Top Shot sale. The sale is also the largest-known one of the basketball icon.
Despite the Antetokounmpo NFT sale breaking the previous Sorare NBA record, it does not come close to trading card deals.
In September 2020, an autographed Giannis Antetokounmpo rookie card was sold for roughly $1.8 million. As of then, the transaction set the record for the highest-sold basketball trading card.
Meanwhile, the record-breaking sale comes as the wider crypto space is recovering from an intense crypto winter that has driven NFT prices down.
Despite the unfavorable condition of the crypto market last year, data from DappRadar showed that NFT sales increased by 67%. CryptoPotato reported that 101 million NFTs were sold in 2022, which is significantly higher than the volumes of previous years.