Wayne Gretzky hasn’t played an NHL game since 1999, but his value went up 22% today.
No, the Great One isn’t planning a comeback. But he’s a hot ticket right now in an innovative new market that’s changing how people invest, monetize, and manage collectibles. Dibbs, the only fractional collectibles marketplace powered by blockchain, allows its users to instantly monetize their sports, fantasy, and other trading cards by selling them on a fractional basis to other Dibbs users. For collectors, it means you can create a portfolio that includes fractional shares of LeBron James (at the time of this writing, trading for $82,977), the Hulk ($10,650), Alex Morgan ($6,299), and Formula 1 driver, Max Verstappen ($3,080).
The NFT market is red hot. According to Reuters, sales of NFTs reached $25 billion in 2021, with almost half of that coming in just the fourth quarter. Investment bank Jeffries suggests that the market will surpass $80 billion by 2025 and spawn a variety of related, niche NFT services. And interestingly, the average price paid for an NFT is in the $100 – $1000 range, which indicates a desire for affordable access for both collectors and investors.
A New Approach for NFTs
Dibbs, headquartered in Southern California, is using the inherent advantages of the digital marketplace to enable collectors of all types to establish financial stakes in collectibles. Dibbs’ specialty is using the NFT asset class as a new platform for sports and fantasy card trading and collecting. The company creates and mints digital representations of these physical cards which can then be sold as NFTs, and are stored in a Dibbs-managed vault. These can then be divided up through fractions, which are sold to other investors and collectors.
CEO Evan Vandenberg provided clarity on Dibbs’ purpose and goals when he recently said, “More than anything else, [the NFT craze has] gotten people to think about collecting differently. Before it was this kind of physical attachment, and I think people are now much more comfortable separating that possession from ownership concept and being able to do these things in a digital form.”
But as rapidly as the market has grown, an unfortunate corollary is that it’s become a magnet for fraud. As in any digital environment, fraudsters join NFT marketplaces using false identities, then create bogus accounts and apply other fraudulent behavior to generate illegal profits in the form of fake trading, collusion with other investors, or outright theft. In one example, NFT marketplace provider OpenSea admitted in January to widespread misuse of their platform, noting that 80% of the minted NFTs in their service were fake, spam, or plagiarized.
Eliminating Fraud as a Growth Priority
Dibbs has made it a priority to prevent fraud in their marketplace so it can attract more users who can buy, sell, and trade shares in NFT collectibles with the confidence that they are dealing with verified, legitimate users, that their transactions are safe, and the collectibles authentic. Their primary goal is to unlock, scale, and speed up customer acquisition, all in a safe, trusted environment.
Dibbs is partnering with Socure to address fraud throughout the customer experience, starting with customer onboarding. Using identity verification and onboarding automation, as well as ID document verification as needed for step-up, Dibbs provides a faster, more accurate collector onboarding experience than other providers. With Socure’s industry-leading 98% auto-approval rate across all demographics (including Gen Z and other thin-file populations), Dibbs is able to get users onto their marketplace rapidly and expects at least a 20% increase in first-time deposits. Socure uses advanced, proven fraud models to deliver a 90% capture rate for the riskiest 3% of users, which will enable Dibbs to capture more actual fraud while reducing false positives.
Using the Socure ID+ platform means that Dibbs can rapidly acquire ‘good’ customers without exposing the marketplace to fraud. The result? More collectors can join Dibbs to participate in this vibrant market of highly sought-after physical collectibles, all with the confidence that their trades and acquisitions are done with other verified individuals. With Socure’s ID+ platform as their foundation, Dibbs is verifying new customers in milliseconds and is immediately establishing trust with even the most privacy-conscious collectors at first deposit.
To learn more about Dibbs and how they’re working with Socure, check out the press release here.
Brigitte Engel
Brigitte Engel is a Senior Director, Product Marketing at Socure responsible for emerging markets such as Buy Now, Pay Later, Cryptocurrency, and Online Gaming. Previously, Brigitte held marketing leadership roles with leading endpoint security companies, including Cylance and Guidance Software, and identity fraud vendor ID Analytics.