Naomi Osaka NFT Resale Proceeds to go for Mental Health Initiative

NFTs are the rage now in crypto and it has been announced by basic.space that an NFT created by the tennis star Naomi Osaka would be put up on resale at the website and a portion of the net proceeds would go for mental health initiatives for athletes.

She and her sister, Mari Osaka, had put up 6 NFTs for sale in April with 5 of those getting sold off for a total of $600,000. The sixth NFT was put under a raffle and the winner of the raffle had got possession of the same. Now the winner has decided to put up the NFT for resale through a global auction so that anyone in the world would be able to bid on it.

“This is an extremely unique piece, and the story behind it brings a lot of value to the future of sports collecting through NFTs,” Shea Newkirk, Founder of CryptoStache.com, said. “While there have been some monstrous NFT sales by professional athletes over the last six months, Naomi Osaka’s persistent and positive presence in the public eye will probably push this auction to a new NFT record.”

Naomi had created waves recently by withdrawing midway from the French Open citing that her mental health was getting affected by all the media scrutiny and she skipped Wimbledon as well. This brought the attention of a large part of the sports world to the mental health issues and pressure that athletes all around the world face day in and day out. This is the reason why a part of the proceeds would be directly funneled to the non-profit organization called Athletes for Hope.

This sale would be watched with keen interest to see if it creates a record for NFT sales. The record for an athlete is currently held by the NFT piece of boxer Tyson Fury which was sold for $987,000. The current NFT is being titled “Finding What was Lost” and the fact that it is backed by Naomi and her sister and has a story to tell for all is expected to bring in a lot of attention to this NFT when the auction is on. The NFT was created on the flow blockchain which is usually used for many of the NFTs that NBA top shot produces. This auction could be keenly watched as it is likely to set the tone for such auctions by athletes in the future as well.