Macy’s entering the NFT space was ‘inevitable’: Decrypt Editor-in-Chief

Dan Roberts, Decrypt Editor-in-Chief, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss investing in bitcoin amid volatility and Macy’s NFT series launch for its annual Thanksgiving Day parade.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Bitcoin goes up, Bitcoin goes down. And Bitcoin goes up again, it's up right now at 3%. Remember, Bitcoin never stops trading. Let's talk about what's going on in the crypto corner, regarding cryptocurrencies other than just Bitcoin, with Dan Roberts. He is the editor in chief at Decrypt. It's always good to see you, Dan.

And I just want to ask you real quick. Help us understand the case that those who say this is a great investment-- I'm going to say Bitcoin specifically, because the swings are more than my stomach can handle. But what's the best case as to why Bitcoin is a good investment? I got analysts saying $100,000, but then I see the drops like, what, we're off 20-plus percent since the peak recently, and I get nervous. So what's the best case to invest in this?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, first of all, Adam, you know, I don't necessarily dispense investment advice. You know, at Decrypt, we just cover the interesting and wild news of this industry. But what I would say that investors say is, think of these as digital assets, you know? I like to say that the term cryptocurrency has become something of a misnomer. In Bitcoin's case, it's really not being used as currency, it's being used as a form of digital gold that you buy and hold onto.

And when we do see volatility, like right now, you're right. Some people look and they say it's too scary for me. But if you zoom out and look at that line over time-- and by the way, it's been trading for 11 years. A lot of people still call this so new, and it's new in the big scheme of things, but it has proven itself over more than 11 years. If you zoom out and look at that line, it's up and to the right.

Now, there are periodic corrections, including dramatic corrections, but a lot of that is that when it gets really high, you see some profit-taking and people take some of their gains off the table. It's also very headline-driven. You see news out of China. China again announces it's going to crack down on crypto, or most recently, that infrastructure bill that has a troubling line about taxing crypto brokers. Those tend to spook some people and they do some profit-taking.

But really, if you look at 2021, it's been way up. And the thinking is that in Bitcoin's case, it's a cap supply. There will never be more than 21 million coins. Of course, the other traditional thinking at the peak of the pandemic was, this is a store of value hedge against inflation. Lately not so much, right? Rising inflation, so some people say, well, why isn't Bitcoin up more when we see those inflation numbers? And I think that's a fair point.

SEANA SMITH: Well, Dan, a lot of people are clearly excited about Bitcoin. A lot of people are still buying it. There's also lots of excitement around the NFT space. We've talked about this a number of times. I want to bring this up, though, because Thanksgiving week, Macy's is actually going to turn some of its Thanksgiving Day balloons into NFTs from their parade. What do you think of this move, and is this kind of a sign that there's almost too much hype within this space?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, it's funny you say that, Seana. You know, our writer Stacy Elliott said that Macy's is pumping even more hot air into the NFT boom right now. I mean, use whatever pun you want. If you think it's a bubble, here's Macy's doing NFTs out of their Thanksgiving day parade balloons. But in some ways, this was inevitable. I mean, every big company-- and Macy's couldn't be more of a funny typical example, because here's a classic retail chain that has had major, major trouble in the last two years, long before the pandemic, trying to look hip and tech-savvy by doing NFTs.

Now, that said, the demand is there, and the NFTs have already raised something like $42,000 in bids. These are one of one, so one-of-a-kind digital images, each one tied to an iconic Macy's Day, Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. So some people think it's cool.

And you know, we've talked about NFTs before. What I remind people is you just have to wrap your mind around the idea that in many cases, value has gone digital. People say, it's just a static digital image. Why would anyone pay a lot of money for this? Well, because they own it. It's part on blockchain. The owner is the only person who can trade it, sell it. Other people say, well, I can take a screenshot and share it, too. Sure, that doesn't mean you own it.

So Macy's has jumped in. And I'll give you one other funny thing here. It seems to me the idea was in part prompted by a major shareholder in Macy's that recently publicly advised Macy's to do crypto things. This shareholder group also wanted Macy's to partner with a crypto platform to accept crypto as payment. That hasn't happened yet. I'll be surprised if I see Macy's do that. But this seems like step one.

KARINA MITCHELL: So it seems like crypto is going to be one of the big topics of conversation around the Thanksgiving table, right? Because there's been so much interest piked by it. I held a little bit just for fun, and I got rid of it. Bitcoin is today $57,000 well off its high of $68,000 I've got burned too many times, even with the $100 that I have in there. So what do I tell my family, my kids around the table and say, oh, we want to invest in Bitcoin. Why should we really do that? Because it is so volatile, so it isn't something that's for everyone, is it? And then we saw futures, the ETF, VITO, it took off when it came out. Two others came out as well. Others are now putting that on hold, and interest has been waning. So tell me, like, really, why should my kids, why should I get back into it? I feel have been burned?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, Karina, first of all, what's funny here is that exactly four years ago, Thanksgiving 2017 was the first Bitcoin hype kind of frenzy moment. If you guys remember, Bitcoin had surged to close to $20,000, and everyone and their grandmother was talking about crypto around the Thanksgiving dinner table. Now here we are four years later, and everything has changed. It is far, far more mainstream than it's ever been.

Your question is about Bitcoin. I guess my answer is that Bitcoin bulls would say that you need to have a longer view. I mean, you're saying it's well off the highs. Sure. But compare it to where it was one year ago. Compare it to where it was four years ago. There are people who thought it was crazy at $20,000, now it has touched $65,000 in the last few months. So hello. I mean, something is worth what a large enough group of people are willing to pay for it.

But I would direct you to look not just at Bitcoin, at what's happening across the crypto landscape. I mean, Ethereum, which is this separate blockchain network that came after Bitcoin, which was specifically designed for smart contracts, all the interesting things in crypto that have happened in the last few years that we talk about. DeFi, decentralized finance protocols and liquidity, NFTs, all of those things were built on the Ethereum network.

So a lot of people will tell you it's gone beyond Bitcoin, Bitcoin is just digital gold and that you should look at Ethereum, ETH. Now, of course, in the past weekend, you guys, really interesting fierce debate over the rising gas fees on Ethereum. It's almost been cursed by its popularity, because the network has become a little bogged down and expensive.