NBA Top Shot was a wildly popular market during the 2021 NFT bull run. At its peak, daily trading activity on NBA Top Shot hit an impressive $45 million. Although trading volume on NBA Top Shot has yet to reclaim these heights, it remains an indispensible site for sports enthusiasts.

But since it's enjoyed high status as a crucial feature of the broader NFT ecosystem, there's a story behind the action. So it's time to cover the basics, including: what NBA Top Shot is, why it became so popular, and whether it's the right NFT market for you.

NBA Top Shot is an NFT market focusing on professional sports video clips. Specifically, NBA Top Shot sells "Moments" NFTs with officially licensed footage from the National Basketball Association and the Women's National Basketball Association. The Web3 company Dapper Labs partnered with the NBA and WNBA in 2019, and it released NBA Top Shot in 2020. Venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and basketball legends (including Michael Jordan and Kevin Durrant) are a few of NBA Top Shot's major donors.

During the 2021 crypto bull market, NBA Top Shot became one of the most mainstream NFT markets, with more than 1 million registered accounts. In early 2021, collectors spent more than $200 million per month trading NFTs on NBA Top Shot's platform. Although monthly averages on NBA Top Shot fell after 2021, it maintained average monthly sales of roughly $3 million in late 2022 and early 2023.

NBA Top Shot is a peer-to-peer marketplace built on a decentralized blockchain called "Flow." Dapper Labs created the Flow blockchain in 2019 to offer NFT traders a fast and low-fee alternative to Ethereum. The Flow blockchain is also well-known for many beginner-friendly integrations, making it easy for non-crypto investors to buy and store digital collectibles.

After setting up a Flow account on NBA Top Shot, collectors can link a crypto wallet and buy or sell NFTs on the marketplace. NBA Top Shot partners with crypto companies like Circle and Coinbase to help customers pay with fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies. You can send coins like Ethereum to NBA Top Shot, or load your account with a credit card.

Every NFT on NBA Top Shot has a specific serial number, description, and transaction history to verify ownership on the Flow network. NBA Top Shot also organizes its NFTs into different rarity tiers depending on how many there are in circulation. The scarcest NBA Top Shot NFTs are in the "Legendary," "Genesis Ultimate," and "Platinum Ultimate Categories." The other two major NFT types on NBA Top Shot are "Common" and "Rare" editions.

Collectors can buy mystery "Packs" of NFTs or swap NFTs on NBA Top Shot's secondary market. Although an NFT Pack guarantees you'll get tokens in a specific rarity category, you won't know what clips you'll get until you open it.

Before buying your first NBA Top Shot NFT, you must set up an account on the Flow blockchain. Visit NBA Top Shot's official website and click "Sign Up" in the top right corner. Enter your email address or sign up with a pre-existing Google or Apple account.

After you confirm your email and create a password, open your Dapper balance by clicking your profile icon on the top right. Dapper Labs lets customers deposit cryptocurrencies or use a credit card to transfer money to their wallet. Choose whichever payment method is the more convenient one by which you'd like to add funds to your NBA Top Shot account.

Once you have cash in your NBA Top Shot profile, explore available NFTs by clicking one of the tabs on the top of the homepage. First, the "Drops" section shows any current or upcoming NBA Top Shot Packs. Since Packs are the most affordable option, they tend to sell out fast once Dapper Labs releases them. To increase your odds of claiming an NBA Top Shot Pack, follow NBA Top Shot's social media feeds and blog to learn when Dapper Labs plans to drop new NFTs.

If you're interested in specific NBA Moments, click the "Marketplace" link to search for NFTs on the secondary market. Here, you can buy or sell NBA Top Shot Moments directly with other NFT collectors. Use any of the filters on this page to find the team, player, or rarity ranking you're most interested in.

Thirdly, you can also explore the "Challenges" page to see if you qualify for free NBA Top Shot NFTs. If you hold specific NBA Top Shot Moments within a limited time, you can add a Challenge NFT to your profile. As people build your NBA Top Shot collection, they have higher odds of qualifying for more of these special Challenge NFTs.

The Canadian company Dapper Labs owns NBA Top Shot. In addition to NBA Top Shot, Dapper Labs is behind the CryptoKitties collection, and has additional assocations with other branded NFT markets like UFC Strike, NFL All Day, and LaLiga Golazos.

NBA Top Shot launched in beta mode in October 2020. However, it wasn't until the 2021 bull market that NBA Top Shot became a household name in the crypto and professional sports industries.

Currently, the top four best-selling NFTs on NBA Top Shot are clips with LeBron James. The most expensive of these Moments features King James making a slam dunk in the 2020 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, which sold for $230,000, according to NBA Top Shot's leaderboard, this NFT sold for $230,030.

Although LeBron James dominates the historic sales chart on NBA Top Shot, NFTs with Ja Morant, Zion Williamson, and Fred Vanvleet also made it to the top ten. Each NFT in NBA Top Shot's top ten list sold for $100,000, or more.

NBA Top Shot is a safe NFT market with a beginner-friendly user interface. Dapper Labs is one of the most respected and well-funded companies in the NFT industry, and there are no reports of hacks or security breaches on NBA Top Shot. Dapper's partnership with Coinbase and Circle also adds credibility to this marketplace. Plus, if you have any concerns when using NBA Top Shot, you can contact the company's Customer Support team.

Although NBA Top Shot is the largest NFT market specifically for NBA clips, plenty of other sites offer digital pro sports collectibles. For example, Tom Brady's Autograph.io sells NFTs with dozens of celebrity athletes like Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter. Michael Jordan also made headlines after releasing an NFT collection on the Solana-based HEIR NFT market.

NBA fans may also know LeBron James and the 76ers have official partnerships with the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com. Collectors often find exclusive basketball NFTs on Crypto.com's NFT marketplace.

Most secondary NFT markets like OpenSea, NFT.com, and Magic Eden also have sections with professional sports-related NFTs.

NBA Top Shot gives sports fans a new way to own, share, and trade iconic moments with their favorite teams. Professional sports NFTs may also serve as a gateway into exclusive online communities.