Tennis star Naomi Osaka launches NFT
Naomi Osaka, Japan’s top tennis player, has expressed interest in diversifying her investments into cryptocurrency after following the ongoing hype around Dogecoin (DOGE), initially led by Elon Musk.
Osaka had revealed in a recent interview with Bloomberg that she was discussing cryptocurrencies with her agent, who also agreed to the potentials about Dogecoin to “pop up” soon. She has also joined a nonfungible (NFT) space through the launch of a rare tokens collection before the US Open starts.
In collaboration with her sister Mari Osaka, Osaka had launched a six-piece collection of 1-of-1 NFTs in April 2021 that collectively sold for $600,000. The highest purchase sum for one NFT was $200,200, which is currently the most expensive one sold by a professional tennis player.
Other than Tennis, another sport that has shown great interest in NFT is soccer. Recently, the Paris Saint-Germain soccer club had launched PSG fan tokens, that skyrocketed after the soccer legend Lionel Messi joined the club. Messi’s two-year contract with PSG also includes PSG tokens as a part of his payment.
Other professionals interested in NFTs are mainstream musicians Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park and Kings of Leon. While Mike Shinoda became the first artist to release a single as an NFT, Kings of Leon sold NFT-based albums, recording a sale of $2 million.
Major brands, including Budweiser and Visa, have started acquiring NFTs instead of creating their own tokens. NFTs have also receiving outpouring support from top entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban, who said he was investing in building “scalable AI infrastructure for NFTs” .
