Cryptocurrency mass acceptance is already underway, with the advent of the Metaverse and major businesses announcing nonfungible token (NFT) drops. According to recent findings from the Pew Research Center, nearly a quarter of 10,371 adults in the United States were familiar with bitcoin, while only one-eighth (13 percent) were completely unfamiliar. According to an additional study conducted by online broker BrokerChooser, the United States is the third most interested country in NFTs, trailing only Canada and Australia.

Given the United States’ interest in cryptocurrency, it’s not surprising that the price of Bitcoin (BTC), NFTs, and cryptocurrencies, in general, will be discussed at the Thanksgiving table this year. Black Friday sales on holiday-themed NFTs and bitcoin may be particularly appealing.

The most intriguing mainstream NFTs for Thanksgiving

With this in mind, a fascinating topic for discussion may be the growing number of popular businesses and stores adding holiday-themed NFTs into their product offers. For example, on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, Macy’s, one of America’s top department shops, will debut its “Macy’s Parade NFT” series.

According to Dave Torres, vice president of digital marketing at Macy’s, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has mirrored the finest of pop culture for more than nine decades. In addition, Torres noted that Macy’s had created art in the sky and on the ground with its iconic balloons and floats during the Thanksgiving parade. As a result, Torres stated that one of the goals of the parade NFT project was to understand new trends better while also ensuring that Macy’s is ready to embrace the next frontier of digital brand interactions. “We saw an opportunity to link brand innovation with our charity efforts for the Make-A-Wish Foundation in a way we never believed possible when we engaged ourselves in this project,” he said.

The Macy’s NFTs are powered by Sweet, an enterprise NFT solutions provider, and are developed on the Polygon blockchain. According to Tom Mizzone, CEO of Sweet, a consumer brand NFT platform, the Macy’s Parade NFT series includes parade balloons from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade’s 95-year history:

“Each parade balloon has been carefully selected to represent a specific decade from the 1920s to the present, and each balloon has been captured and grafted into a series of 9,510 generative NFTs designed by the very talented NFT artist REOMETRY.”

The Macy’s Parade NFT series, according to Mizzone, is unique for a variety of reasons, one of which is that just ten of the NFTs are available for purchase. “Those ten are only available through a Sweet auction that is currently running and will expire on November 30. “On Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2021, the remaining 9,500 NFTs will be accessible for free on a first-come, first-served basis,” he stated on an official website.

All revenues from the 10 NFTs up for sale, according to Mizzone, will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This American non-profit organization supports children with life-threatening illnesses. In terms of the 9,500 free NFTs Macy’s is giving out, Mizzone explained that the retailer is going above and beyond typical charitable giving by demonstrating how to use NFT technology and smart contracts to create a continuous giving initiative:

“Every time an owner of a Macy’s Parade NFT decides to sell their NFT in a compatible aftermarket, 10% of the sale price will be donated to Make-A-Wish. So essentially, you’ll have 9,500 NFT owners when this is all said and done and an open-ended future of donations to, in this case- Make-A-Wish. As more retail brands begin to see the opportunity that exists with NFTs, Macy’s is setting a precedent of what’s possible in the realm of giving back.”

Martha Stewart, an American businesswoman and television personality, has created Thanksgiving-themed nonfungible tokens on her website, MarthaFRESHMint, in addition to Macy’s NFT collection. Following the release of her Halloween-themed NFT collection, Stewart will release a Thanksgiving-themed NFT collection this year, including audio recordings of Stewart’s Thanksgiving recollections.

Tokns Commerce, an NFT solutions provider for legendary brands and creators, collaborated with Stewart to create a licensed “storytelling” Thanksgiving-themed collection. According to Jamie Tedford, CEO of Tokns, a commercial solution for NFTs, the collection includes over 100 NFT collectibles that show a new perspective on iconic pictures from Martha Stewart Living magazine:

“With our featured drop, Martha has invented a new category we’re calling ‘Storytelling NFTs.’ This one-of-one NFT features exclusive audio of Martha recalling family Thanksgiving traditions and recounting the story of her first attempt at hosting Thanksgiving dinner — burnt Turkey and all.”

Stewart, according to Tedford, believes that storytelling has become a lost skill, which has grown more difficult in recent years of social alienation. “We wanted to use NFTs to reintroduce narrative and bring this little-known story of Martha’s terrible first Thanksgiving in her new house back to life.” In addition, Tedford continued, “Her legendary voice recording and accompanying original music set a new standard for generating a rare, wonderfully created one-of-a-kind NFT.”

Black Friday sales and cryptocurrency spending options for the holidays

While Turkey Day NFTs from Macy’s and Martha Stewart highlight cryptocurrency’s growth, retailers, merchants, and major brands have also started to support crypto payments in time for the holidays.

For example, on November 23, Regal, a movie theater chain with over 500 locations and 7,000 screens in 42 states, announced a partnership with digital payment network Flexa to allow consumers to pay for movie tickets, food, and beverages using cryptocurrency. Regal will accept Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Doge (DOGE), USD Coin (USDC), DAI (DAI), Gemini Dollar (GUSD), Chainlink (LINK), Cosmos (ATOM), Basic Attention Token (BAT), and other cryptocurrencies.

The increased desire for digital currency payment choices, along with the fact that Regal is about to enter its busiest season of the year, makes this announcement particularly appropriate, according to Trevor Filter, co-founder of payments platform Flexa.

“We’re ecstatic to announce this relationship just in time for the holidays, and we’re looking forward to offering Regal’s consumers and merchants simple, dependable, and secure digital currency payment choices.”

In addition to Regal, Bitcoin payments provider BitPay has teamed up with a number of its partners to offer Black Friday bargains to bitcoin users. Ace Jewelers, Newegg, precious metal store APMEX, and many more, according to Merrick Theobald, vice president of marketing at BitPay, would offer consumers discounts or rates that contain no further costs. “To take advantage of these offers, customers must pay using cryptocurrency or the BitPay card,” Theobald explained.

App for Bitcoin Reward Lolli is also offering double Bitcoin reward rates for Black Friday purchases. Lolli rewards customers with Bitcoin for purchases made at big businesses such as Sephora, Groupon, Macy’s, Nike, and others. According to Alex Adelman, CEO and co-founder of Lolli, the average BTC incentive rate would quadruple to 14% during Black Friday.

How will customers react to NFTs and cryptocurrency transactions?

Even though Thanksgiving NFTs and crypto payments appear to be more popular than ever this holiday season, it’s still unclear whether consumers will choose to spend their digital currency on purchases or collect holiday-specific NFTs from big firms.

For example, while customers are anticipated to spend cryptocurrency this holiday season, it may not be as much as in prior years:

“Black Friday this year already started happening for many merchants at the beginning of November, so it may not be easy to identify if spending will increase on Black Friday specifically. However, I do think that the rising prices of cryptocurrencies will get people to spend more on luxury items.”

While Bitcoin is the most extensively used crypto for payments, other coins such as Dogecoin and Litecoin and stable coins are gaining appeal with consumers and retailers, according to Theobald. “Stablecoins have a larger ticket value than regular cryptocurrencies.” This could be because retailers want to accept crypto payments. Therefore they’re urging customers to pay with stablecoins because of the many advantages of blockchain payments,” he speculated.

Some worries remain about holiday-themed NFTs, like environmental consequences and simplicity of usage, particularly for individuals unfamiliar with obtaining nonfungible tokens.

With these issues in mind, Tedford noted that Tokns intends to make NFTs more accessible by eliminating the need for a cryptocurrency wallet. “That’s why we built our platform on Shopify and used Shopify Payments to accept credit card payments and Coinbase Commerce to accept cryptocurrency transactions.” He continued, “We walk customers through the process of moving their NFTs to their crypto wallet once they’ve purchased them.” According to Tedford, credit cards were used in over 90% of transactions on MarthaFRESHMint, with most of these purchases coming from first-time NFT customers.

In terms of the environmental impact of NFTs, Mizzone stated that Sweet uses the Polygon blockchain for a variety of reasons, one of which is that Polygon is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. As a result, Polygon utilizes a fraction of the energy that other chains do, according to Mizzone. “Removing that possible environmental barrier is huge if our goal is to reduce the barrier to — and it is.”

Given the maturity and relevance of the NFT field for brands, Torres added that Macy’s has been “very focused” on launching its parade NFTs, adding that “it’s unlikely to be Macy’s last entry into NFTs.”