Ice Cube's BIG3 Basketball League to Offer NFT Ownership Stakes

Fans of the Big3 will have a chance to purchase ownership stakes of individual teams as NFTs, league founder Ice Cube announced Monday:

The Big3 currently owns its 12 teams, but partial ownership will now go up for sale on a fractional basis, per Andrew Hayward of Decrypt. 

"The NFT blockchain revolution hit, so to speak, and we were like: 'Yo, do we want just some fat cats coming around buying teams that we gotta deal with?'" Ice Cube told Hayward. "This is a great way for the fans to be owners. And so, it's a no-brainer for me. I'm all about changing the game and shifting the paradigm."

There will be two tiers of ownership among the 1,000 non-fungible tokens sold for each team. The 975 "Gold" NFTs will be sold for $5,000 each, while the 25 "Fire" NFTs will go for $25,000.

All NFT owners will get extra perks, including tickets to all Big3 games and the ability to vote on team matters. Those in the Fire category could receive licensing rights to create merchandise.

The fifth season of the three-on-three league is set to begin on June 18.