Rumors

Then November came. The United States elected a president who shills his own NFTs. He tapped Musk to co-lead the controversial Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Since then, the crypto, NFT, meme, and collectible markets are surging like it’s 2021. Dogecoin more than doubled. Bitcoin kissed $100,000 for the first time. CryptoPunks and Bored Apes are rallying. GameStop—yes—has climbed about 50 percent, then fallen, spiked, and so on. Society once again seems eager to spend ironically, speculatively, boldly. And once again, Dapper Labs is on the scene. Gharegozlou has been lobbying Congress to introduce a bill protecting against “future overreach to define all Web3 products as securities,” according to a Dapper Labs spokesperson, who notes that the bill’s chances have “gone up significantly due to the election results.”  Perhaps the stage is set for a Top Shot renaissance. This time around, Dapper Labs boasts not only a tested infrastructure but also tested users—long gone are the fair-weather traders. Consider one Andrew Seo, a graduate student in Chicago. “I’m still a big blockchain believer and I think fundamentally Top Shot is a good product—it’s a pioneer,” Seo says. As prices rose in early ’21, he held most of his Moments, waiting for prices to tumble so the game could begin in earnest. “Now the platform is way better than it was back then,” he says, “but people don’t know that.”

The Ringer

As Tom Haberstroh wrote for TrueHoop last week, the NBA has all kinds of ties to the GameStop story that made us aware of Robinhood: Michael Jordan’s business partners in the Hornets are among the most affected hedge fund executives. Two of the loudest voices cheering on the retail investors are Mavericks billionaire Mark Cuban and Warriors investor Chamath Palihapitiya. One of the biggest investors in Robinhood is Sequoia Capital. Remember the Warriors investor who shoved Kyle Lowry courtside in the 2019 Finals? He was a key figure from Sequoia’s history: Mark Stevens. Grizzlies investor Josh Kushner has been a vital investor in Robinhood. At least four people have invested in Facebook, Robinhood, and the NBA. Grizzlies investor Josh Kushner, Warriors investor Mark Stevens, and Celtics investor Jim Breyer wrote checks to buy into all three. Palihapitiya was a key early manager at Facebook, his Facebook equity went a long way to making him wealthy enough to own a chunk of the Warriors.

TrueHoop

A. Sherrod Blakely: PERSONAL NEWSP Today's my first day w/ @BR_NBA where my focus will be on topics impacting NBA front offices. Today I look at the NYK and whether Julius Randle is part of their future, or will they treat him like year-old GameStop stock and sell high.

Twitter

Gabe Plotkin, a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets, has gone through a hellish week as a hedge-fund manager, seeing his investment management company fall into financial crisis. Plotkin’s firm, Melvin Capital, lost roughly 30% of its assets in stock-shorting bets, including video game retailer GameStop, according to the Wall Street Journal. Two other firms invested about $2.75 billion in Melvin Capital to keep it afloat.

Charlotte Observer

A spokesperson for Plotkin’s firm told Reuters on Wednesday that the firm has closed all of his short positions in GameStop, but at a steep price. Reuters says the $12 billion hedge fund Melvin Capital was down almost 30 percent over the course of the first three weeks of January. Industry sources say the losses have gotten far worse this week.

TrueHoop

2020 was a historically bad year for NBA finances, thanks to the pandemic shutdown, absent ticket revenue, and a hit to the NBA’s China business. If cash is tight, can Jordan still count on Plotkin or Sundheim? Will Plotkin or Sundheim be liquidating assets in the fallout of the GameStop episode? Could that include their stakes in the Hornets? (One potential buyer is legendary hedge fund manager David Tepper, who bought the Carolina Panthers at an NFL-record price. In 2019, he brought the MLS to Charlotte reportedly for a cool $300 million.) And … did Jordan invest his own money with Melvin Capital or D1 Capital?

TrueHoop