The world's largest and first-ever collegiate sports digital collectible marketplace, NFTU.com, officially sold out in seconds its first collection of digital memorabilia featuring college basketball.  

NFTU, powered by technology company RECUR, represents a step toward fair usage of NIL (name/image/likeness) rights for collegiate athletes. Launched together with a network of over 50 universities, hundreds of athletes and leading licensing and brand partners such as Learfield, NFTU provides a first-of-its-kind opportunity for student athletes to benefit from the use of their NIL through owning their own royalties and allowing them to create long-term investments. The platform and its popularity will support colleges and  champion both current and former student athletes for years to come by enabling players to support themselves while pursuing their sports.  

NFTU is the only unified collegiate marketplace bringing together all IP rights holders, with the ability to mint the athlete, college and conferences simultaneously on one platform. Unlike other platforms that restrict ownership to a certain blockchain, NFTU gives fans full and complete ownership over their collectibles, and any time a digital collectible is bought, traded or sold on any platform in the form of NFTs, student athletes and colleges across the network receive royalties. The relationship presents a win-win: fans are able to truly own and be a part of their favorite team on an interoperable and chain-agnostic platform, while the players themselves are able to generate revenue in entirely new ways that will be sustainable over time. 

"The success behind the inaugural collection of NFTU demonstrates how much the collegiate sports community is united behind their school and their athletes and are looking for a way to show it," say Zach Bruch and Trevor George, co-founders and co-chief executive officers, RECUR, in a joint statement. "We're providing an avenue for student athletes to focus on competition and school while benefiting from the 2021 NIL NCAA rule change by simply doing what they love. In return, fans get a piece of the action for their support and through NFTU, they're able to truly own their cherished sports moments." 

NFTU has officially launched, with a season-long collegiate basketball collection featuring weekly drops in the form of cases. Cases contain multiple NFTs that come in four rarities – Common, Premium, Rare and Ultra Rare – with rarity being determined by both the player and the moment. Additional college sports will be rolled out in the coinciding season such as collegiate football.