Amidst Shaquille O’Neal’s Confusion Over Crypto, Michael Jordan Lost 90+% Of His NFT Value

Michael Jordan joined the hype of cryptocurrency and the block chain just as several other celebrities and athletes did over the past couple of years. MJ, who has cemented himself as a multi-billionaire with his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets and his relationship with Jordan Brand, never needed to divulge into the NFT space.

Non-fungible tokens were the craze of 2022 and it felt as though every single known figure looked to capitalize on this craze. ‘His Airness’ was no different. Despite guys like Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley being confused about the concept of cryptocurrency, Jordan went through with it.

In March of last year, he launched the ‘6 Rings’ collection where he put up 5,000 tokens up for sale. The 6 rings concept comes from the fact that he went 6-0 in the NBA Finals but fans were in for quite the unprecedented drop-off in value by the time 2022 inched closer to an end.

Also read: Ben Affleck Cites Deloris Jordan as Hero of “AIR” and Reason Why Michael Jordan is Absent From the Movie

Michael Jordan lost most of the value for his NFT collection

Last year’s FTX scandal that resulted in a crash of the crypto market is responsible for Jordan’s NFT collection taking the dip that it did. This is because the tokens that were in his collection were priced in SOL or Solana. With the FTX crash, Sol took a dip from $96 at the time of the collection’s drop to $14.41 at the time of the FTX crash.

Each NFT collectible from the Michael Jordan collection was priced at an average of 16.99 SOL with some even going for as cheap as 2.3 SOL. This did not matter however as owners of the ‘6 rings’ NFTs lost a significant amount of money due to the crash, with the dip being estimated at 92%.

The most expensive token from the collection was the Gold 6 Rings collectible which was priced at 50,000 SOL. If Sol was worth $96, that specific collectible would be worth $4.8 million. Instead, at the time of the crash, it was worth a ‘measly’ $723,000.

Did Shaquille O’Neal hide in his house after the FTX lawsuit?

Shaquille O’Neal, despite claiming he felt confused by cryptocurrency and the idea of the block chain, would go on to be one of the foremost celebrity endorsers of FTX. Him along with guys like Stephen Curry and Tom Brady were promoting FTX over the past year.

However, when the FTX scandal broke out, FTX retail investor, Edwin Garrison, sued every one of the celebrity investors, including Shaquille O’Neal for promotion. When lawyers regarding the case showed up at his house, he did not meet them, prompting many to believe that he was ‘hiding’ from them.

Instead, it turns out that Shaq was getting a hip surgery. He’s since addressed his surgery and even poked fun at it with the guys on ‘Inside the NBA’ doing the same.

Also read: “I’m Not The Best, Michael Jordan Is”: Charles Barkley Revealed He Couldn’t Believe What He Saw From The UNC Alum In 1984