Sue Bird at the 2017 WNBA All-Star Game in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota)

Seattle Storm star Sue Bird and U.S. Women’s National Team star Megan Rapinoe are among the female athletes getting in on the non-fungible token (NFT) craze with the release of digital trading cards next month.

According to Sportico, the athletes, who are all represented by the Wasserman sports agency, will be featured on collectibles designed by Los Angeles-based artist Lauren Nipper.

Athletes in addition to Bird and Rapinoe include No. 1 WNBA draft pick Charli Collier; No. 3 selection Aari McDonald; Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad; X Games gold medalist skateboarder Mariah Duran; and Paralympian Scout Bassett. Sportico said additional female athletes will be announced prior to the May 10 release.

“Women and people in women’s sports have continued to show leadership and the power of the collective voice to drive change,” Rapinoe said, according to Sportico. “The NFT landscape is an opportunity to provide space for true ownership, crypto participation and authentic creativity in a way that hasn’t been done before.”

Circe Wallace, Wasserman’s EVP of action and Olympic sports, said in the report that the nature of NFTs is allowing these women athletes the “unique ability to have full autonomy and agency over their own name and likeness,” something that is typically bound by union and league restrictions.

NFTs are akin to a digital certificate of ownership, whether it’s for an artwork, a sports highlight or a tweet.  or a promise to farm 1,000 acres in a manner that keeps carbon trapped in the ground. Fungible items, such as money or barrels of oil, are generic and interchangeable. The tokens contain unique lines of code that link them to unique items.

Previously:

Dapper Labs, the Vancouver B.C. startup behind NBA Top Shot NFT craze, raises $305M

As worries spark over the carbon impacts of NFTs, some unexpected boosters come to their defense

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