Macy’s Launches NFT Collection to celebrate Thanksgiving Day Parade

Moms Justice

Nov 23, 2021 • 3 min read

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2019. Last year, the broadcast was edited to give the impression of a seamless three-hour program.Credit...Brittainy Newman/The New York Times

Macy's is now jumping into NFTs and Thanksgiving is a perfect way to test and see

Who has the biggest balloons in the land and now has entered the NFT fam?

Macy’s the department store behind the famous Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York is giving away 9,500 NFTs to celebrate its 95th year of the event. Ten “ultra rare” versions of the NFTs are being auctioned and have already generated thousands in bids.

Children at the parade in 2009. This year, the 95th edition is not quite typical. Credit...Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Macy’s said it will begin giving away the free NFTs on Thursday, Nov. 25 at 10 a.m. EST.

NFTs are tokens that represent ownership rights over digital items, such as videos, images, or music files. The Macy’s NFTs, which are Ethereum-based tokens on the Polygon network, donate 10% of every secondary market sale to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

It’s the same as when artists set up their NFTs to send them a commission each time their art resells. Meanwhile, all of the proceeds from the ultra-rare collection will go to the foundation.

Shrek floated down Central Park West in 2008. This year, the parade is expected to return with all its helium-filled pomp.Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Macy’s NFT debut comes after Visa, Budweiser, McDonald's, and even Charmin have taken a shot at engaging consumers with digital collectibles. Most have designed their NFTs to automatically transfer some portion of sales to a charity. And all of them have been met with mixed results.

But there has been at least one significant win in the category. Visa paid 50 ETH (about $165,000 at the time) to add CryptoPunk #7610 to its “collection of historic commerce artifacts.” Following the purchase, the lowest price commanded by NFTs in the collection has hovered around 100 ETH, or around $400,000, and many of them command prices in the millions.