Many celebrities and superstars have embraced NFT technology and are avid collectors. Many celebrities even ended up launching and pushing their own NFT collections. This article will briefly cover some of the world’s biggest superstar athletes and their own NFT collections that they’ve launched, whether on their own or in collaboration with a digital marketplace.
This article will cover detailed information about some officially licensed NFT collections from superstar athletes and legends in their respective sports, including Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Stephen Curry, Micah Johnson, Son Heung Min, Rafael Nadal, Lionel Messi, Tony Hawk, Tom Brady, Usain Bolt, Wayne Gretzky, and more!
Mike Tyson
The Mike Tyson NFT Collection was created from digital graphic artist Cory Van Lew’s original artwork with creative oversight from Mike Tyson himself. The collection included “UNDISPUTED Edition 1/1 Unlockable,” a unique piece where the winner received first-class airfare and lodging along with an all-access tour of Mike Tyson’s personal training facility, a Hotboxin’ set, access to his studio rooms, and his exclusive art archives.
The winning bidder of the auction stepped into the ring with Mike Tyson and his personal trainer and coach to train, battle and relax with Mike Tyson at Tyson Ranch, his 40-acre marijuana resort in Southern California.
Within the same collection, various other editions include The Lifetime Collection with ten original one-of-one NFTs, The Knockout Series with five original NFTs with 50 editions each, and The Baddest Man on the Planet, which has a total of 250 editions.
By visiting this website, you can learn more about Mike Tyson’s NFT collection statistics and the different editions.
Khabib Nurmagomedov
The Khbib Nurmagomedov’s NFT collection was created to commemorate the end of the martial artist’s professional career as the longest-reigning UFC Lightweight Champion with 29 wins and no losses.
Khabib Nurmagomedov’s NFT collection was sold exclusively on his website at digitalkhabib.com. The collection had three possible series of gold cards, platinum cards, and one possible diamond card (the diamond card was not sold, so it ended up getting burned).
All of Khabib’s NFTs that sold, along with their current floor price, can be found by visiting his https://digitalkhabib.com/.
Tom Brady (and his Autograph platform)
Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, Simone Biles, Derek Jeter, Wayne Gretzky, Tony Hawk, Naomi Osaka, Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski and Rafael Nadal have all launched their NFT collections on Autograph.io, a digital marketplace platform owned and founded by Tom Brady himself.
Autograph.io gives fans unique access to exclusive content, digital collectibles, custom-made merchandise, and private, in-person events depending on the utility of each NFT. All the NFTs listed above and the various editions can be explored and accessed by visiting the Official Autograph Marketplace.
Son Heung Min
Son Heung Min launched his Fan Pass collection in collaboration with NFTStar, a digital brand that engages with various superstar athletes and fans using web3 technology. Holders of the Fan Pass were allowed to mint a free Golden Shiny Boot NFT after Son Heung Min was crowned the European Golden Shoe winner of 2021/2022.
A total of 5,880 Son Heung Min Fan Pass NFTs were minted for 0.07 ETH for whitelisted members and 0.09 ETH during the public sale phase. You can find out more regarding Son’s fan pass and his other NFT collections by visiting his official NFT fan page here.
Micah Johnson
Micah Johnson, a former MLB shortstop, launched his own NFT collection called Aku: The Moon God Open Edition on Nifty Gateway on February 21st, 2022, selling more than $1.4 million dollars in NFT tokens during the 24-hour sale period: The Genesis Aku open editions were sold for $999 each, and 1,402 editions were minted.
Johnson began painting his young nephew in an oversized space helmet and backpack. Eventually, Johnson created a 10-part art story about the “space boy,” which was all sold on Nifty Gateway as different drops. Since then, Johnson created his own 15k PFP collection called Akutars, which were sold through a dutch auction directly on his website.
Akutars ended up resulting in a staggering loss of 11,539 ETH for Micah Johnson (around $34 million) due to a faulty smart contract and the entirety of the earned funds getting stuck and becoming permanently unretrievable. Johnson took full responsibility for the issue, and his team was able to mint and airdrop all 15,000 NFTs to all of the original purchasers of the NFT.
Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry launched a collection of 2,974 NFTs to commemorate the new all-time 3-point record achieved by NBA superstar Stephen Curry. Each “2,974” NFT was created by artist Andrea Mcdonald and contains one of four sketches created entirely out of the number “2974,” along with the date, location, Stephen’s digital signature, and special moments associated with the game.
Everyone who minted one of the “2,974” collections also received a free NFT with an illustration from the legendary Floyd Norman, Disney’s first African-American animator and artist. Each of Floyd Norman’s Stephen Curry NFT collection features one frame from his six-frame storyboard commemorating one of Stephen’s two favorite 3-pointers.
The 2974 Collection has 2974 NFTs in total, and 3,417 Floyd Norman-drawn Stephen Curry NFTs exist. Stephen Curry donated 100% of his profits from his NFT collections to benefit underserved youth via his “Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation,” which is committed to fighting and ending child hunger and providing quality education to underprivileged kids.
Lionel Messi
Legendary soccer forward Lionel Messi launched his first ever officially licensed NFT collection with blockchain platform Ethernity as part of an ambitious project known as “The Messiverse.”
Messi’s NFT collection was created by a renowned digital artist called BossLogic. There are four different editions, all ranging in price and total supply, and they were sold on Ethernity’s official digital marketplace.
Messi’s NFTs, available for purchase on Ethernity, can be found by clicking here.
And there you have it. This is a list of the sixteen famous superstar athletes in their respective sports, along with various links and information surrounding their NFT collections.
There is no denying the kind of influence every one of these superstars has on their fans and the rest of the world. It is quite amazing to see how many of these athletes have embraced blockchain and NFT technology.
Some other superstars in preparation for launching their own NFTs include Neymar Jr., Giannis Antetokounmpo, Christian McCaffrey, and Serena Williams, to name a few. Still, it’s probably safe to bet many more will come in the not-so-distant future.
