Good Morning, NBA Top Shot tribe! Hope you had an excellent weekend, and are enjoying some entertaining playoff basketball! Let’s get into all the action from the last few days:
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Quick Hits 👊
🔹The legendary Holo drop is inching closer… As of this weekend, there were nearly 7,000 collectors eligible for the queue, with that number sure to rise as more Collector Score bonuses are accumulated. Only 2500 packs are available (at a Series 1 price point of $230 🤤) — with rebound packs available for those who miss out.
🔹 Speaking of rebound packs... After some wishful ideation that Top Shot could use the unclaimed Playoff packs instead of the normal base rebound packs, we got a ‘maybe’ from Community Lead Jacob Eisenberg on Monday’s Top Shot live stream.
During the holo icon stream that just ended, @Eisenberg43 implied there’s a chance (a chance, NOT A GUARANTEE) that the rebound packs for the holo drop could be something other than base set packs, depending on how many qualify for the drop. 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼@TheFirstMint @jonboybeats
— asdfjkl; (@_homerow) June 15, 2021
That would certainly soften the pain that I am already preparing for when that bad queue number pops up! BRB, getting the cold brew IV prepped to inject into my veins for good luck.

🔹 Now that’s marketing! We saw some new #sponsored social media posts promoting the upcoming Holo Icon packs, with several players revealing their own highlights. No disrespect to Alexa G, but this type of post should resonate a bit better with NBA fans:
Officially have a Holo Icon Moment on @nbatopshot 🙌🏾 Dropping this Thurs, don’t miss out on this dunk 💪🏾 #sponsored pic.twitter.com/0cXY2J9QXe
— James Wiseman (@BigTicket_JW) June 14, 2021
🔹Wondering what else is on tap for this week? A thread on all the upcoming drops, challenges and more here.
The rewards for the first two Playoff Challenges (Trae Young, Paul George) were distributed quickly on Monday, with 2746 and 2367 completions respectively. The next two challenges feature rewards from Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard (awesome step-back three to force double OT). List of what you’ll need for these here.
🔹Playoff Showcase Quests! We got an interesting new format for quests on Monday, with the moments required coming from top-performing players from the previous night’s NBA action:
Playoff Quest🧙♂️@NBATopShot has just actived their first 24H Showcase Quest.
— TheFirstMint (@TheFirstMint) June 14, 2021
How it works:
☑️Make a showcase with "Playoff Quest" in the title
☑️Include ANY Moment of the 10 players listed below
☑️Deadline Tomorrow 12pm PT
🎁Prize: 100x Playoff Packs, awarded Randomly
List🔻 pic.twitter.com/wplcp06yuV
Note that you’ve got a quick deadline (12 PM PT TODAY), so get those Showcases created if you’re hoping for some prize luck! This new format is yet another way for different moments to have value — while also tying into the fandom of watching the NBA Playoffs. Well done on this one, Dapper.
If you need to check your showcase, MomentNerd has you covered again with a handy tool. Check it out here.
Market Movers 📊
Things are still pretty stable on the Top Shot Marketplace, with challenges playing a big role in rising values of many lower-tier moments. But are prices moving on speculators anticipating future challenge requirements as well? Let’s go to @SteefCrypto for the data:
Let’s do some very *mild* speculation🔮
— TheFirstMint (@TheFirstMint) June 13, 2021
For the 2021 Playoff Commons, we have:
🛡️2x Active Challenges
🛡️6x More To Go (Presumably)
Let’s assume each will require:
🛡️4x Playoff Moments
♦️ 4x Base Commons
So are future challenges priced in yet? Not quite.
From @SteefCrypto🔻 pic.twitter.com/WbA9NcV8DE
Lets venture outside of the NBA Top Shot world, to observe some wild movement in NFTs over the past few weeks:
♦️ The Bored Ape Yacht Club is thriving, with over 4000 unique users and a floor price above 1.5 ETH. The BAYC is a collection of 10,000 NFTs with varying traits and rarity — if you’ve been on Twitter and follow NFT-related accounts, you’ve probably seen them lately. One ape even sold for 55 ETH late Monday, marking the highest sale so far.

Meanwhile, Mark Cuban-backed play-to-earn game Axie Infinity is surging, topping NBA Top Shot in weekly sales. Wondering what Axie is all about? Via the whitepaper:
Axie Infinity is a Pokémon-inspired universe where anyone can earn tokens through skilled gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem. Players can battle, collect, raise, and build a land-based kingdom for their pets.
👀@AxieInfinity overtook @nbatopshot in weekly sales last week and is seeing an explosion in growth after migrating from Ethereum Mainnet to its own sidechain, Ronin. https://t.co/l4dZEsfPo1
— Steef.eth (@SteefCrypto) June 14, 2021
Around The First Mint 🗣
Coming off a wild ending to last week, LG touches on the recent controversy in the Top Shot community and then dives into his theory on what the First Round Playoff Challenges will look like in the coming weeks.
🎧The New Collector Score (FEAT. ALAN FALCON)
📹TFM Live Show — Hot Or Not: Top Shot
🎧The Best Sets On Top Shot (FEAT. GIRLDAD)
📰 Miss an earlier edition of The First Mint Newsletter? Check out the archive here.
Thanks for reading! — Zach @ The First Mint
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Follow The First Mint on Twitter at @TheFirstMint.
Follow Zach on Twitter at @GhostOfGregOden.