In brief

  • Triller, a TikTok competitor, has launched its own NFT marketplace.
  • The first collectible being offered is Jake Paul’s KO punch from a fight last year.

To celebrate the launch of its new NFT marketplace, social media company Triller has minted an NFT of controversial YouTube star Jake Paul landing a knockout blow on former NBA player Nate Robinson.

The punch came during Triller’s ‘Fight Club’ event at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on November 28, 2020. Bidding is currently up to $10,455, or you can buy it now for a cool $10 million.

Los Angeles-based Triller first rose to public attention via its online short video sharing app, which, like TikTok, allows users to share and enjoy small videos on a social media platform. 

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Triller’s Jake Paul Knockout Punch NFT arrives a week before Paul’s next match against Ben Askren on April 17, 2021. 

Auctions for the NFT conclude at the finish of the next match, the last thirty seconds of which will be incorporated into the NFT for the winning bidder in what Triller calls the first NFT "Future."

Blockchain: taking sports fandom into web 3.0

If you’ve been following blockchain, or even just sports collectables over the last year, you’ll have likely heard of NFTs. NFTs are digital assets that can be traded just like real life collectables thanks to blockchain technology. 

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Blockchain’s cryptographically secure distributed ledger system has not only enabled hundreds of new currencies to be created, but it’s also been responsible for a bit of a boom when it comes to digital collectables.

The NBA is in on it. Its basketball trading card range, NBA Top Shot, hit as much as $32 million in trading volume in a day last year. 

Over in football, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' tight end Gronkowski minted a few NFTs of himself in action and collected a swift 830 ETH, which was $1.6 million at the time of sale, (and is now closer to $1.8 million). 

Hackers would need to commandeer 51% of the computing power of the Ethereum network to change values on its distributed ledger. This means that whoever wins Jake Paul’s KO NFT will have a one-of-a-kind token of the fight. 

That is, until an advanced computing empire comes to overturn the status quo of the world’s machines. 

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