Pranksys Unearthed Interview Exclusive!

Of course it was the usual suspect Pranksy, who made it to the news due to his huge NBATopShot collection which he is selling.

Some of us in the EU stayed up really late to witness it live and on time. But it was a bit disappointing because it all happened so fast.

Made us wonder here at RLE Gazette HQ if there was more to it. Our investigative hounds were determined to get to the bottom of this.

So we unearthed EXCLUSIVELY for you the complete interview, that you can read below.

Pranksy: I'm a 29-year-old male game designer by the way as my day job for bg

FOX: Very cool, and how and when did you get started with TopShot?

Pranksy: On alpha launch day June last year

FOX: And how many packs did you buy?

Pranksy: I spent around 100k $ on packs, over the first 3 months, then I sold a lot of moments to bring myself to profit, and then early January 2021 as I saw the market starting to rapidly increase in volume, I spent a further 700k $ on buying out entire accounts from other users

FOX: Any estimate on the value of what you currently hold?

Pranksy: Right now I've made a profit in excess of 500k $ and my account floor value is 6.13 M $.

I've been in NFTs or 'non-fungible tokens' since 2017 and been a strong believer in digital assets since.

FOX: So initial and more recent investments have paid out handsomely, but why did you feel confident investing, to begin with?
What made you think this was something that might blow up?

Pranksy: As above I've been around the space since 2017 I started with 800$ balance worth of a cryptocurrency called 'ethereum' and using my knowledge of game economics.

I've traded my way to a net worth of 8-10 M $. TopShot is not my first digital collectible rodeo, I knew the development team well and saw the quality of the product in comparison to its competitors

In a podcast in July last year, I go into much more detail about why I thought it could be really successful. The main points are ease of access for non-crypto users and the NBA brand.

And the visuals supporting each moment.

FOX: And the dumb q: 'moments' are the equivalent of moving trading cards? Like that's what you call an individual card or whatever

Pranksy: Yeah. It’s a fully license mp4 clip of a famous play. The most famous so far probably being Lebron’s ‘Kobe’ dunk tribute. 

Fox: Got it.

Pranksy: So, it’s a fully-fledged and licensed digital collectible. 

Fox: And you think it’s possible this model replaces the hard-copy cardboard trading card market some day?

Pranksy: Is there any chance we could link my social in the broadcast?

Fox: Yup. If we’re identifying you as Pranksy, we’ll probably include your Twitter handle. 

Pranksy: Thanks. Remember the NFT at the end

Fox: haha will do

Pranksy: So why do I think these are the future? Consider generations who now only know of a digital lifestyle, social media, etc. How much of their life do they share on tik tok and Instagram, and no longer take photos for their mantelpiece? I think this is the collectible equivalent

Fox: It certainly seems replicable by every other sports league 

Pranksy: Those include, an instant international marketplace, no fear of forgeries because the creation and a full history of those collectibles are saved on the blockchain. No fear of losing the cardboard card in the post, no delay of 6 months to get an item ‘graded’. You can also display really unique methods of collectible incentives in metadata, such as serial number, set types limits, etc. And yes absolutely this formula can be taken beyond the NBA. Dapper already has a UFC license. 

Fox: Any idea where you stack up compared to other collectors of Top Shot moments?

Pranksy: I believe in terms of floor value I am 3rd in the world. In terms of number of moments, I am first. There are a couple of major collectors who have not been selling since the start. I prefer to remain liquid so continue to list and collect. I’ve also just agreed to hold for 2 of my moments

Fox: Oh, very cool. Which ones?

Pranksy: With Heritage sports or Goldin. I’m currently negotiating with both sites. They are the biggest sports collectible auction houses I believe. 

Fox: And which moments?

Pranksy: Zion rookie debut #1 and Giannis rub it back #1 (it’s the only moment from his rookie season) 2013-14

Fox: Got it!

Big appreciation to Pranksy for providing the material.

Must be noted that it’s the first time an Avastar also made it to the small screen through Pranksy. Since then, the Pranksy team has successfully launched and sold out their  NFT Box. In only 6 minutes 500 boxes were sold out, with the sales keeping up strong on the secondary! Wow congratulations!

It will not be long until Pranksy will make headlines again as his Zion Williamson RD #1 moment is currently auctioned on Herritage Sports and the auction is ending in almost a month’s time.