Banana Ballers

Today we have some very slick looking Bananas to take a look at. The Banana Ballers are a collection of 5,007 NFTs living on the Ethereum blockchain. Crafted from a wide range of hand-drawn traits, featuring 10 ultra rare traits, as well as 6 legendary Banana Ballers that have a range of rewards attached including real signed Basketball jerseys and a Diamond Rolex.

Let’s take a closer look.

Who is Behind the Project?

It appears that there is a couple of creators behind the project. Although we can’t actually see the whole team because the specific section on the Banana Baller site is empty.
However, the project has been privately doxxed and verified by Assure Defi. From looking through the projects Twitter account we can find that they make mention that one of the Co-creators is a 10-year-old who is really quick on a bike. A little further digging reveals that the Co-creator is an avid biker sponsored by Fasthouse and Hot Wheels, I wouldn’t be surprised if his close family members are behind this project.

Team Members

Co-creator – Joshua (Jetman)

About the Collection

The collection features a range of brightly coloured bananas, presented in a vast range of styles. Some of the trait combinations look rather clean. And I haven’t yet seen a banana pfp collection done this nicely yet, so props to the team on that one.
The collection has a small tidbit of utility – if you are feeling a little bit lucky. There will be 10 traits among the collection that will be highly desirable and limited in number, bananas with these traits can be expected to be valued higher than their counterparts. We also have 6 legendary bananas in the collection, each is attached with a real-life reward.

Banana Ballers doesn’t stop there. The team have also chosen to support the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation. (by Stephen & Ayesha Curry). 5% of the proceeds from the mint will be donated to the charitable organisation.

Road Map

The Road Map appears to be underdeveloped. It is very brief, with no milestones and is pretty vague – please see for yourself.

Socials

• Twitter – 11.1k followers | Joined February 2022 – Medium sized purpose made account. Good amount of posts, regular updates. Engagement is good on some tweets.
• Discord – 11.3k Members | 888 Online – Verification on entry, no rules to accept. Bots sit above regular users, with mods above bots. Chat is slow at some points but trickles over now and again. Has shilling channel.
• Instagram – 3.9k Followers – 7 Posts, engagement is good on some posts. Could post a little more often.

Smart Contract

Smart Contract is not yet available for review.

Price & Mint Date

The mint has a few different price tiers. The tier you are allocated depends on what prerequisites you completed in the Discord or were awarded via Twitter. Each tier has a limit. Website states you can mint up to 7 Bananas per wallet, however it is not specified if this is for public or whitelist sale or both sales.

Platinum Mint – 0.05 ETH (1000 only)
Gold Mint – 0.07 ETH (2000 only)
Silver Mint – 0.09 ETH (2000 only)
Public Mint – 0.2 ETH (Remainder)

Notice something funny? That’s because there’s a supply of 5,007 NFT’s yet according to the projects own numbers 5,000 are already allocated to the different whitelist mints — so does that mean there are only 7 NFTs available in the public sale? It could be the case, but this is very strange. I have notified the Banana Baller team and am awaiting further clarification.

Mint date is reported as 20th August 2022 – however, a Discord notification states mint is 21st for whitelisted members. Either a mistake has been made by the team here, or dates have changed. It is unclear at this stage.

Conclusion

The artwork is clean, they are good looking Bananas. They have an approved team, and they are even donating some of the proceeds to charity. It’s a nice collectible project with some rewards for those that are lucky thrown in.

However, I am largely unimpressed with the conflicting information. From mixed up minting dates and no clear distinction of who mints when, to no mention of the team on the website (whilst there is a header section for “Team”). The Road Map is also largely lacking.
Another thing I have an issue with is the various minting tiers and the allocation that doesn’t seem to be correct (only 7 public sale spots?). When you have such a large discrepancy from a projects WL price, to public price (in this case a whopping 0.15 ETH difference), you often get people cutting the floor and selling under the public or later WL tier price on secondary markets. This isn’t a good look for projects. In a project like this where the only reported utility is a chance to win some prizes, there isn’t much benefit to hold the NFT if you can get out with an easy couple hundred dollars profit from cutting the floor because you got in early at a bumper price.

All in all, I am not convinced. If you like the artwork and want to support a decent charitable organisation, then go for it – you may even win a prize. However, it’s worth noting, cartoon Bananas with one-off prizes likely won’t carry you to the moon!