Former ‘Bachelor’ Star Matt James talks crypto investing, NFTs, and holistic wellness

Former ‘Bachelor’ Matt James joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss investing in cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other ventures he's involved in.

Video Transcript

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ADAM SHAPIRO: Fans of the television show "The Bachelor," or fans of entrepreneurs, get ready. We've got Matt James here. And not only is he a star from "The Bachelor," also a star in the world of being an entrepreneur. We're going to talk to you too about Dymatize, the fitness brand you've partnered with. But I got to ask you-- you're getting into crypto. What drew you to investing in crypto?

MATT JAMES: I have been in crypto for a while now. And I think I'm more vocal about it now because I think it's important that, you know, the marginalized communities that I work with through my non-profit ABC food tours hear these stories about what's going on in the space. And they have a seat at the table as these legacy financial institutions start to enter the arena.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Matt, as Adam was mentioning, you have a new partnership with the fitness supplements company Dymatize. And I want to ask you about that. But what I really want to ask about is you wear so many hats between investing, your nonprofit work, product partnership, advocating for financial literacy. How do you decide what companies you want to work with because of the platform that you have?

MATT JAMES: I invest my time in people. I look for people who have strong convictions, good track records, the Michael Saylors of the world, the Anthony Pomplianos, people who break things down for the normal person in terms that they can understand and make this ecosystem more inclusive for everybody. And then insert crypto, insert fitness, insert wellness, and I just look for those types of people.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Tell us about Dymatize. How is it different than the other kinds of fitness and nutritional products that athletes and those who want to get into shape utilize?

MATT JAMES: I think it's important that, as a majority of people are trending to work from home and are less apt to go to the gym, know that there are alternatives to going out and eating unhealthy and making sure that they're taking care of their personal fitness. And it starts with your diet. So myself when I'm going out and working out in the garage or running, I need to have a protein that my body metabolizes. And I make sure that when I'm picking my protein, it's something that is not going to give me indigestion. Dymatize is one of those that helps fuel and rebuild my muscles after I'm done training because I'm working on running the Boston Marathon at the moment.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Matt, I want to go back to your work with crypto and the opportunities that you see in that space, because I'm wondering, with NFTs, what opportunities do you see there specifically? Do you own any NFTs? Or what's your involvement with that space been like so far?

MATT JAMES: I have been very aggressive in the NFT collection process. I think that 2022 is going to be the biggest year of onboarding people across the country who have not been in the space up until this point. And I think that the utility will begin to be unlocked for what you can use an NFT for, whether that be a concert, whether that be a sporting event, season passes. You name it. There's a lot of value to grab right now.

And I'm just educating myself. I'm in a lot of different Discords, Twitter spaces. You name it. I'm in there, trying to learn as much as I can so that I could relay that information back to the communities that I support.

ADAM SHAPIRO: When you talk about being in the people business, the people who look up to you, as they jump into this world,-- we're all learning still so much about it-- how do you protect them from being taken advantage of those in the world who might try to take advantage of them?

MATT JAMES: That's a great question. And I always preface everything I say with, this is not financial advice. I'm not-- I'm never instructing people to buy. I'm giving them information about why I'm doing the things I'm doing and why I have strong convictions, in particular, from a scarcity standpoint in Bitcoin.

And just giving them the information, you know, when they're hearing about how environmentally unsound it is, reiterating the fact that, you know, directing them in the direction of where a hash power is actually coming from, just giving them a more holistic view of the space and what I'm personally interested in, opposed to, you know, telling them to throw their life savings in all coin. Like that's not something you're going to hear from me.

ADAM SHAPIRO: All right. Matt James is an entrepreneur. And we appreciate your being here with us. All the best to you, sir. And congratulations on your partnership with Dymatize.