Compared to many that have been in the NFT world, I am merely a baby tadpole — one with wide eyes, stunned with awestruck wonder, and is taking on so much more than its little mind could handle. As overwhelming as it was at first, it brought me some sense of thrill and bursts of adrenaline. As I was discovering projects after projects and art pieces after art pieces, I jumped on every single boat I could jump onto and aped into every little thing anyone tweets. 🤣
As time went by, I realized that many of the things I bought actually had close to zero value and it finally dawned on me how much money I’ve wasted on these useless illiquid assets that will be stuck with me basically forever. As frustration grew, I became burnt out and was slowly but surely losing hope in the longevity of my journey in the NFT world. It was truly exhausting.
I wanted to quit and just consider everything I’ve lost a learning expense. All that happened within the first week of my experience with NFTs.
After essentially quitting and staying out of NFTs for a few weeks, I was then told about NBA TopShot, which really captured my attention whole. Having been an NBA fan my whole life, I never knew that my crypto journey would finally collide with my NBA fandom. Even after getting extremely burnt out by NFTs, I dove right back in headfirst in light of this news. I definitely wished that I heard about this sooner!
Early February of 2021, I finally created an account on NBA TopShot and studied everything there is to study about NBA TopShot — what moments are, how rarities are determined, what packs are, when they drop, and a bunch of things I never knew I would be excited about. At first I was reluctant to put a large sum of money into NBA TopShot after having been traumatized by my recent experiences with NFTs, but as I went along and learned more about the platform and its potential, I grew weary of not seriously investing in this. So I caved, and put a decent amount of my crypto earnings into valuable moments like the “first moments”, which had no badge at the time and were speculated to be worth a good amount when badges arrive.
Just when I thought I had been fully assimilated to NBA TopShot and what it entails, I discovered this fantasy game called Swyysh, which involves using the TopShot moments you own into a fantasy team that you can build each week. Having been an avid fantasy basketball player, this excited me about TopShot even more. I then started using my fantasy basketball skillset and tried to create the best team possible each week using my own projections and the moments that I own. It was a blast, and I enjoyed doing it every week!
Ever since that time, I have been exposed to so many quality projects because of the $WHALE community. I bought and sold and traded and own CryptoPunks because of this community, I participated in teleporting Avastars because of this community, I encountered new people like Pranksy, WhaleShark, and other prominent figures in the NFT community because of first interacting with people within this $WHALE community. I have done so much and have done quite well because of the seemingly random discovery of a fantasy basketball league that eventually brought me into this community. This has been my starting point in the wild NFT world and I will always remember the $WHALE community as one that changed my perception of NFTs for the better.
And now, I honestly could not see myself not being involved with NFTs ever again. Because of this community, I have grown so in love with it way too much to simply walk away from it.
I cannot wait to continue learning from the $WHALE community — join the livestreams and voice chats, meet and interact with people in the Discord, and hopefully win more of the weekly $WHALE Swyysh leagues as well! 😁 This is only the beginning, and I see so much potential in the future as the community grows not only in quantity but also in quality. I may be a dolphin now, but at this rate, I think I will start working my way up the ladder with the hopes of being a Shark and perhaps a Whale one day. It’s gonna be an exciting journey ahead, and I cannot wait to embark on this adventure with the $WHALE community.
Much love to you all, and happy birthday $WHALE! 🥳
