• Championship NBA franchise one of the first sports teams to do an NFT release.
• Golden State Warriors raised more than US$2m in an NFT auction on Opensea.
• Broader NFT market is forecast to grow in value to US$75bn by 2025 driven by sports.

The NBA’s Golden State Warriors in the US is teaming up with crypto exchange FTX, as professional sports leagues around the world embrace crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

As seen on Grafa TV yesterday (December 15) in an interview with Cheddar’s Kristen Scholer, President and COO Brandon Schneider said the Warriors are always looking for new ways to engage its fans in the Bay area, domestically and internationally. 

“We as a society, not just in sports, are kind of at the beginning of the beginning with crypto and NFTs specifically, so we’re really excited to partner with FTX to see where we can take this together,” he said.

The Warriors basketball team has been record-setting on many fronts and is one of the first sports teams to do an NFT release back in April.

FTX, which has a market capitalisation of about US$5.4 billion, will become the official crypto trading platform for the franchise, as well as home to a number of NFTs it plans to drop. 

The broader NFT market is forecast to grow in value from about US$14 billion today to US$75 billion by 2025, driven mostly by the boom in sports NFT products.

In May this year, the Golden State Warriors raised more than US$2 million in an NFT auction on Opensea.

The team sold 327 NFTs of artwork of championship tickets and rings, raising the bulk of the funds through NFT auctions that also included physical rings.

More than $871,500 was paid for an NFT of the team’s six championship rings combined in one, which was the second-highest price ever paid for a championship ring.

Last month, it was announced that The Staples Center, which has long been the naming rights sponsor to the home arena of the LA Lakers, would be renamed as Crypto.com in a US$700 million deal.

Dapper Labs, the firm behind NBA Top Shot, which offers officially licensed digital collectibles, said that pro sports leagues are now warming to NFTs.