Decentraland and NBA Top Shot Onboard

Earlier in the year at the VRAF, a huge challenge discussed was how to onboard new people interested in the possibilities enabled by NFTs for digital art. In February of 2020, Decentraland launched, which joined CryptoVoxels as an early interpretation of the metaverse. Decentraland would play a critical role in onboarding big brands and celebrities in the coming months and years, eager to buy the virtual real estate. The second onboarding surge came from NBA Top Shot, which was meant to capture ownable basketball highlights for fans to collect and trade but quickly turned into a speculative frenzy with the seeming ease at which you could make quick money. Top Shot introduced a large new crowd to NFTs—and they had capital.