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HEIR of Michael Jordan's Solana Athlete App Drops First NFTs
The NBA legend's career inspired the 6 Rings NFTs, which serve as access passes to the Web3 fan engagement platform.
In a nutshell,
- HEIR, a Solana-based fan engagement platform founded by Michael Jordan and his son Jeffrey, today launched its first NFTs.
- The 10,010 NFTs are being sold for 2.3 SOL (approximately $221) each.
Michael Jordan, the NBA legend, is making moves in Web3, including the December announcement of HEIR, a Solana-based platform aimed at connecting professional athletes with their fans. HEIR launched its first NFT collection today in order to attract "founding" users to the upcoming platform.
HEIR's 6 Rings NFTs are inspired by Jordan's illustrious NBA career, which included six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s. The startup sold 5,005 Solana NFTs on the Magic Eden marketplace for 2.3 SOL ($221) each, an homage to Jordan's jersey number. The company initially planned to sell 10,010 NFTs, but later announced that it would cut the planned NFT supply in half, owing to slower-than-expected sales. Soon after, the project's limited supply was depleted.
Each 6 Rings NFT designates the holder as a "founding fan," granting access to the upcoming platform that connects athletes and their fans through "Huddles," or communities with a limited number of users. Members of the Huddle will have access to exclusive content from each athlete, as well as ask-me-anything sessions, merchandise, and other perks.
6 Rings NFT public mint is now live.
— HEIR (@Heir_Company) March 3, 2022
Head to https://t.co/xfxCemaytz or https://t.co/BPt03kX2Vg to get yours.@MagicEden_NFT pic.twitter.com/5uhEaTeOLv
The company has yet to reveal which athletes will be featured on the Solana-powered platform, but during a Twitter Space today, the team hinted that NBA legends and current players would be involved. According to the official HEIR Discord server, players ranging from high school to professional will be welcome.
HEIR was revealed in mid-December as a collaboration between Michael Jordan and his son Jeffrey Jordan, with Jeffrey listed as a co-founder alongside Jeron Smith (ex-Nike) and marketing consultant Daniel George.
Thrive Capital led the $10 million seed round, which also included Solana Ventures, Bulls star Lonzo Ball, Reddit co-founder and Seven Seven Six founder Alexis Ohanian, and New York Knicks Executive Vice President William Wesley.
Beyond this initial NFT drop for "founding fans," Jeffrey Jordan told Decrypt, the company will offer additional future opportunities to onboard users, including NFTs that act as access passes to specific athletes' respective huddles.
"We'll be exploring many ways to thoughtfully bring fans into the community," Jordan said, "while always ensuring we honor our founding fans in a unique way."
In today's Twitter Space, HEIR co-founder Smith discussed why the platform chose Solana over other platforms, such as Ethereum, the leading smart contract and NFT platform.
"Ultimately, lower gas fees and transaction costs were extremely important to us," he said, referring to the cost of transferring funds or interacting with apps on a blockchain network. "We had the opportunity to work with their executive team and understand their vision for Solana, and as a result, we had ethos and shared sensibilities." When it comes to the Web3 space, they believe a lot of the same things we do."
HEIR isn't Michael Jordan's only bet in the Web3 universe. He also contributed to The Metaplex Foundation's $46 million funding round in January. The Metaplex Foundation is the organization behind Solana's Metaplex NFT protocol. Jordan also participated in Mythical Games' $150 million Series C round last November.
"The entire HEIR team is extremely excited about the potential of NFTs and Web3 in connecting fans and athletes," Jeffrey Jordan told Decrypt. "We believe that Web3 will be the foundation for the next generation of consumer entertainment experiences."
"We aim to redefine the perspective and functionality of digital culture," he added, "while creating benefits for original culture creators and early adopters."
Editor's note: Following publication, this story was updated to include information about HEIR's reduced supply of NFTs.
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