Jessica Pegula is the first tennis player, and the first female athlete, to get into the cryptocurrency world, more specifically, into the skyrocketing NFT market.
What are NFTs?
NFT stands for a non-fungible token, which is essentially a unique digital item that can represent digital files such as art, audio, videos, items in video games and other forms of creative work. For example, it is a signed image of a tennis player, which is unique, and you have a digital proof of origin.
NFTs are still in their early days, but the hype around them is huge, and they will most probably have widespread usage in various industries. In the near future, I’m sure a lot of people will be familiar with NFTs and understand their value, so it’s great to see that Pegula is thinking progressively and spreading the word about these amazing technologies in the tennis world.
About Pegula’s NFT project
The 33rd-ranked WTA player released her own NFT digital trading cards, i.e. five different limited-edition NFT trading cards. Each card is digitally hand signed and numbered by the 2021 Australian Open quarterfinalist. You can collect up to five different trading cards to complete the Jessica Pegula Limited Edition Set. Two of the cards in the set are exclusive 1 of 1’s, and three of the cards are rare 1 of 3 editions.
Each card has its own auction, sold to the highest bidder. Because of Pegula’s love for dogs, proceeds from the auction will go to “A Landing Paw” non-profit organization. The auction is open now and ends on April 7. Besides the NFT cards, winners will receive autographed merchandise.
The Jessica Pegula Limited-Edition NFT Collection is available here.
I’m surprised that Maria Sharapova wasn’t the one to get into these types of projects first. I’m waiting for her to join the growing world of blockchain.
UPDATE: Even though Pegula claimed that she was the first tennis player to get into the cryptocurrency world in this way, later I learned that Croatian Oleksandra Oliynykova was actually the first one. She sold a part of her skin as NFT.
NFT’s are a big thing in professional basketball (NBA) over here in the US. Glad to see someone in tennis doing them. I agree, Marija, that I thought Sharipova would be first to break ground. Thanks for the link to Jessica’s collection.
Jim, would you consider investing in Jessica’s cards? If Maria doesn’t join this NFT game this year I will be disappointed 🙂
I am open to looking into it.
Marija, I am still not making such investments, but I’m learning about crypto, including NFTs.