BIG3’s early experiment in selling high-priced NFT packages tied to its three-on-three basketball teams has taken another turn: Ken Howery’s Fire-tier holdings have been exchanged for equity in BIG3 HoldCo LLC as part of a settlement.
The change matters because the original Fire NFTs were sold as a mixture of fan access, team-related participation and conditional economic rights. HoldCo equity is a fundamentally different form of asset. It shifts the holder away from the original token-based package and toward an ownership interest in the league’s holding company, although the value of the units received has not been disclosed.
Howery, a PayPal co-founder who also serves as U.S. ambassador to Denmark under the Trump administration, was part of the NFT rollout with Snoop Dogg. In May 2022, BIG3 said the pair had acquired all 25 Fire-tier NFTs associated with Bivouac. A report placed Howery’s NFT holdings in a range from $100,001 to $250,000, but did not attach a value to the HoldCo units he received in the settlement.
The settlement is also tied to a larger, unresolved question about what NFT purchasers were ultimately getting when BIG3 put team-linked tokens on sale. The dispute entered individual arbitration after buyers alleged deceptive, fraudulent and illegal marketing involving promised team-sale benefits. BIG3 has disputed those allegations.
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What BIG3’s NFT structure offered buyers
BIG3’s 2022 plan divided each franchise’s digital collectibles into two tiers. Every team was allocated 25 Fire-tier NFTs and 975 Gold-tier NFTs, creating a deliberately scarce top tier alongside a substantially larger lower tier.
- Fire tier: Offered at $25,000 per token.
- Gold tier: Offered at $5,000 per token.
The pitch was broader than owning a collectible image or token. Buyers were promised access to games and votes on matters including team representatives, uniform colors and league awards. Fire-tier holders were also offered the ability to use their assigned team’s name and logo for artwork and designs they could make and sell.
Those benefits made the offering unusual even within the NFT boom. An NFT, or non-fungible token, is generally a blockchain-recorded token intended to establish a distinct digital item or entitlement. But the token itself does not automatically define every legal or commercial right connected to it. Those rights depend on the associated terms: here, the package included access, voting and specified brand-use permission, as well as potential financial benefits that came with important conditions.
Most notably, Fire holders were promised a collective 40% of net proceeds from a future sale of their team, subject to regulatory approval. They were also offered an opportunity to buy shares at the initial public offering price if BIG3 became publicly traded. Neither promise amounted to a simple, unconditional claim on cash or stock. The proposed team-sale share was collective, based on net proceeds rather than a headline sale price, and expressly subject to regulatory approval. The IPO-related opportunity depended on BIG3 actually going public.
Why the team-sale language became central
The buyer dispute focused in part on team identity and sale rights. Purchasers alleged that BIG3 renamed teams that had been sold while describing the original teams as being “on hiatus.” BIG3 rejected the allegations, and the broader dispute proceeded through individual arbitration rather than a single collective case.
That distinction is significant for anyone trying to understand the current settlement. Arbitration is a private dispute-resolution process in which claims are generally determined outside a conventional court trial. Individual arbitration means purchasers’ claims may be handled separately, so one settlement does not necessarily resolve every other buyer’s situation or establish the final result for all token holders.
An October disclosure stated that BIG3 had entered into settlement agreements with two NFT purchasers in 2025 and another two in the first half of 2026. The exchange involving Howery adds a concrete example of how at least one resolution has been structured: surrendering Fire-tier NFTs in return for holding-company equity, rather than continuing with the original token arrangement.
That does not tell the public the precise economics of the deal. Without a disclosed value for the LLC units, it is not possible to calculate whether the equity exchange was above, below or equal to the value of the NFTs or the original purchase price. It also does not establish that every purchaser settlement used the same terms.
From LLC units to possible public stock
The equity is potentially connected to BIG3’s proposed merger with Graf Global, announced in June. The transaction is designed to combine the companies and create a route by which existing equity and equity-linked holdings would convert into shares of the combined public company when the deal closes.
In plain terms, an LLC unit is an ownership interest in a limited liability company. It is not the same thing as freely tradable stock in a listed company. The proposed merger could change that status: Howery’s HoldCo units would become public-company stock only if the transaction is completed.
That “if” carries weight. The proposed agreement valued BIG3 at $290 million before new funding and possible earnouts. An earnout is a contingent payment or additional value that can become payable if agreed targets or events are met later; it should not be treated as certain value at signing. The merger also has several stated closing conditions:
- Approval from shareholders.
- Required regulatory approvals.
- A stock-exchange listing.
- At least $50 million in net cash proceeds.
Until those conditions are met and the transaction closes, the prospective conversion into public shares remains contingent. A stated merger valuation also is not the same as a guaranteed market value for any eventual shareholding. Valuations can be negotiated figures used for a transaction; listed share prices, if a company reaches that stage, can move with market conditions and the completed company’s financial outlook.
What this means for NFT buyers and sports-business experiments
The BIG3 situation illustrates why an NFT package should be read as a bundle of separate promises rather than a single product category. Scarcity is one component. So are access rights, voting rights, intellectual-property permissions, potential resale economics and any proposed connection to company equity. Each can be governed by different limitations.
In this case, Fire-tier ownership carried stronger promised benefits than Gold-tier ownership, but those benefits still contained qualifications. The 40% future team-sale provision was not 40% for each Fire holder; it was a collective share of net proceeds for the Fire tier. The use of “net proceeds” means costs or other deductions can matter. The regulatory-approval condition means the provision was not simply self-executing. And the IPO-price opportunity was an opportunity to acquire shares in a future offering, not a statement that the NFTs themselves would automatically become stock.
The settlement’s HoldCo-equity route is therefore notable because it replaces a token format with a more traditional ownership instrument. That may make the claim easier to describe in corporate terms, but it does not remove uncertainty. The unit value was not disclosed, its path to public shares depends on a merger closing, and no public information here establishes the terms received by other Fire or Gold purchasers.
For collectors and fans, the practical lesson is not that every token tied to a sports property carries the same risk or opportunity. It is that labels such as “NFT,” “membership,” “ownership” and “equity” should never be treated as interchangeable. The operative details are the specific rights granted, who controls the underlying brand and team, what happens if a team structure changes, and which benefits depend on approvals or future corporate events.
The available account of the settlement can be read in additional reporting on the BIG3 HoldCo equity exchange. What remains clear from the disclosed terms is narrower but important: Howery’s Fire-tier NFTs have been swapped for HoldCo units, and any eventual conversion of those units into public-company shares depends on the Graf Global merger satisfying its closing requirements.
