NBA Top Shot is booming, but users report trouble cashing out after sales of the collectable NFTs

Dapper Labs, for its part, says it's working on the issue and attributes the delays to the exponential growth Top Shot has seen in recent months. A spokesperson for Dapper Labs directed Insider to the NBA Top Shot blog when asked about the delays.

"We've been listening to your feedback and know that withdrawing money has been a major pain point for many collectors," Dapper Labs said in a March 26 blog post. "We're hiring and growing very fast internally to better serve you and add additional functionality to further improve this process."

Since Top Shot opened to the public in the fall as a beta, the platform has registered more than 800,000 users, a Dapper Labs spokesperson told Insider. Between January and February, monthly sales on the marketplace grew fivefold from $44 million to $232 million, the spokesperson said. Sales hit $483 million as of late March.

New users currently need to wait roughly 6-8 weeks before they're granted the ability to withdraw funds, according to Dapper Labs. The process takes time because the firm requires users to verify their identity before they're able to withdraw. After that, each withdrawal can take 21 to 40 days or more because each request is manually reviewed, the company says.

As of March 26, roughly 28,000 Top Shot users had the ability to withdraw, and Dapper Labs says that number is growing quickly thanks to an expanding customer-support staff. The company says the withdrawal process will speed up as its automated systems improve.

Top Shot's astronomical growth and technical stumbles reflect some of the growing pains in the booming market for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.

Excitement around the digitally authenticated collectibles has exploded into a buying frenzy in recent months, with one virtual art piece selling for nearly $70 million in March. But the budding market hasn't been all rosy. In March, users reported thousands of dollars worth of art had been stolen from an NFT marketplace. That same month, Vice reported that some pricey NFTs people had bought were mysteriously disappearing.

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