An Opportunity at the Intersection of Blockchain and Commodities
If you’re an investor in 2021, chances are these three letters have made their way into your consciousness: NFT.
Many NFTs — non-fungible tokens — are selling at astronomical prices, with celebrity purchases helping to popularize the industry.
Here at Weiss, we’ve discussed what NFTs are … and what they could be in the future. But we’ve barely scratched the surface of NFT investment strategies that you should know.
That’s why for last Sunday’s Crypto Special, Chris interviewed a special guest, Joel Kruger.
Joel, whose background is in traditional financial markets, describes how blockchain technology and smart contracts have created this vibrant new asset class ... and three strategies investors can use to find opportunities in this exciting new space.
You can watch the interview here, or read on for the full transcript …
Chris Coney:
Hi there, guys. And welcome to this week's edition of the Weiss Crypto Sunday Special with me, your host, Chris Coney. My guest today is a brand-new guest, Joel Kruger. Joel, welcome to your first Sunday Special.
Joel Kruger:
Thanks, Chris. Good to be here.
Chris:
Is that right? Is it Kruger?
Joel:
Yeah.
Chris:
Yeah, that's good. Okay, good. I'm always terrified of pronouncing people's surnames incorrectly.
Yours is quite easy, actually.
Joel:
Yeah. Phonetic.
Chris:
Yes, indeed. So, the topic one we're going to be discussing today is non-fungible token (NFT) investing strategies. I've done a couple of NFT episodes so far — I think both with Marija, and she's quite detailed in her knowledge of the NFT space. But, when I will look back on those episodes, I must put my investor hat on and become the viewer and go, “If I were watching this, what are the things they're missing; what didn't they cover?” Then I can go back and create another episode that’s more specific about those details. Like, how on Earth do you get into the investing game with NFTs? So let's do what I normally do, which is start general to make sure everyone's on the same page and then dig into the details.
Do you want to do a quick crack at what's an NFT basically, in about 30 seconds?
Joel:
Yeah, I would just keep it simple: An NFT is an innovation that allows people to establish ownership of digital assets. Before an NFT, as an example, you could have some sort of a digital property, which, as most of us know, a lot of times you can just right click and copy them. So, there's this issue of how do you have [true] ownership of a digital asset, right? And that’s the innovation that NFTs present — the ability for you to be able to assign ownership of a specific digital asset.
Chris:
And it is an acronym, right? Non-fungible token.
Joel:
That's correct. Yeah. I mean, people talk about that. And when they talk about that, and I think — like with a lot of this stuff — that’s where you want to focus. And so a lot of the focus goes to the definition, non-fungible token.
With a currency like the dollar, if you have a dollar, I have a dollar, if you have a pound then I have a pound, it's the same, right? They’re fungible. With an NFT, it's non-fungible, meaning each digital token has its own properties.
Chris:
Exactly.
Joel:
Unique.
Chris:
You don't care which dollar is in your pocket.
Joel:
Correct.
Chris:
Whereas with an NFT, it, by definition, you do care which one it is because they are unique. They're not interchangeable for a variety of reasons, right? So that's what makes them unique. And they're the complimentary to the digital currencies, which are supposed to be fungible for transacting.
But when it comes to rarity, uniqueness and having multiple traits, as I've noticed is the thing with collectibles, each Bitcoin has the same traits. That's beautiful. But when you want to get it into the art realm, which is very unique and subjective, you need more uniqueness because the more unique it is, the rarer, the scarcer, the more valuable it is in general.
So, off the top of your head then, can you list like some of the categories that the NFT space falls into? We tend to kind of latch onto like digital art, but that's sort of like the first era and it's evolving rapidly into different areas.
Joel:
Yeah, I think there's just some sense to the way it's evolving. A natural use case is to say, assign a value to this digital asset. A piece of art now can become its own unique, individual piece of art so that the issue of copies where somebody can claim ownership of something in a way that they can represent themselves as being the owner of that asset is no longer an issue.
The first example is with art. And I think that's an example that will live for many years to come. You think about digital artists, these are artists that arguably have just as much talent as traditional physical artists. And yet up until only recently, they did not have the opportunity to express themselves or take advantage of the economies around that art in the same way as physical artists. And so now they can. That would be a first easy example of an application of an NFT, similar to a collectible, a baseball card, no different than having ownership of this digital asset that's represented through art.
We're now kind of exploring and there're many applications. There's a lot of talk around, well, you see right behind me, there are CryptoPunks. And the evolution of that is to say that there're these communities that can be built around these pieces of digital art. Maybe they're not art in the way that some would interpret art to be, but they are representations of art. They also have this tribal aspect to them, which brings in a big, important word here: utility. So there's the idea of owning a digital asset that also has the added layer of utility value add.
And so that could be representing access. So if you own this token, this NFT, then you are automatically given access to whatever the idea is behind whatever it is that's being created.
Chris:
Could be anything digital.
Joel:
Well, yeah. Gaming is a big one. Applications within the metaverse. We're living a lot of our lives online. So, there are these online worlds, and you can have assets within there and access to them. They’re also using NFTs as access to real world events, right? So if you participate, or if you're a member or if you have ownership of this asset, that you will then get access to things in the physical world. So, the applications really are ... we're just scratching the surface. There're many of them. But the innovation is quite sensible and compelling in my opinion.
Chris:
Absolutely. So I like the example, the physical access. And what shot into my mind at that time was a specific seat at a concert, that's not fungible. If I've got the center front row, number seven seat right up to the barrier, that is nonfungible, that's the best seat in the house you'd say. And it would be represented by an NFT, which is a digital ticket effectively that I could transfer ownership of, it has unique value because there's only one seat. I can only be sat there and no one else can be sat there at the same time. And there we go. That's a very simple idea that came to my mind, but there's not a limit. There’s no limit on how far it could go.
Joel:
Yeah. I mean, again, it really comes down to everyday new innovations, new ideas are coming up around this technology. Because at the end of the day, it is technology. It is something that is being built to make things we've been thinking about for a long time better.
The economy around the internet is only just kind of getting started after the past 20 years. We've had all this information, but we haven't figured out how to really use that in a way where it can be ... the economics can be built in which are beneficial on a peer-to-peer basis. And so this — the introduction of blockchain, and smart contracts and NFTs — is really pushing that forward in wonderful ways.
Chris:
Absolutely. Yeah. I've read something this morning, still only like 15% of retail sales are e-commerce, which is small. You think e-commerce is huge, but it's still relatively small even after, like you say, 20 years of mainstream internet usage. Crazy.
Joel:
Yeah.
Chris:
What you said about the digital artists finally getting recognition for their skill, it’s the same as physical artists, it's just the tools that have changed. That ability to create an original artwork in your mind and then manifest it as an image, whether that's on a canvas or a Photoshop, that skill is the same right?
Joel:
Absolutely. I mean, it's really no different than looking at different forms of art, right? As new forms of art come in, there's this unsettling period, perhaps some rejection. So, it's no different, right? Like you said, these digital artists have arguably the same talents as other artists. And so now they have the opportunity.
Up until now, they've been contracting work based on taking a commission for some work for maybe a company or some project, but there's no way to really express themselves in the way that they want and put that work up on display in a gallery and have it sold off. And now, well, it's there.
Actually, I've said this quite a bit: You talk about the playing field being leveled now that this is there, but it really isn't. It's more than leveled in the sense that now you have an incredible thing for digital artists via this technology that allows digital art to retain its rarity, its scarcity by assigning a specific copy of this image as its own kind of digital asset. But at the same time, we welcome the idea that this asset could go viral as far as being shared across the internet because the more it's shared, the more people see it. It's wonderful. And yet at the same time, there still is this scarcity, this rarity, because if you don't own the smart contract linking the NFT to your specific wallet, then you don't have any rights to sell that piece of art. And so it's an amazing thing to be able to have something go viral and be rare at the same time. Quite confounding.
Chris:
It's like an authorized copy by the artist, right?
Joel:
Yeah.
Chris:
It's even better than having it signed. It's like them pointing to specific instances and saying, these are the authentic ones. Right?
Joel:
Yeah. What's even cooler than that is that the collector really does become a part of the provenance, a part of the art with the technology. Because when you look at a piece of art now on the blockchain, you see the piece of art and then below it, you have this amazing provenance that lists the artist and it lists who the owner is. It lists all the previous owners, right? So you see this whole secondary market, you see where the transfers have gone. So not only can you track it, but you can track it in ways where there's value added in the sense that if I recognize or appreciate an artist early on, and that artists later goes on to become widely popular and their art starts to sell for much higher values, well, there's a record of me as someone who was there early and recognized the value in this artist.
The same way, I would say, if you look at the Bitcoin (BTC, Tech/Adoption Grade “A-”) white paper, and you read the Bitcoin white paper, it’s fascinating. I get chills when I read the Bitcoin white paper because the history is so close. Most of the times we study history, we're disconnected from it because it's hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago. But here is this major, major change that happened through Bitcoin and this mystery around it, the intrigue around it, as we don't know who Satoshi is. But if you look at the people who interacted at the time the white paper was released, they're still living today. And so my point is, you go look at those people and see what they're doing. Those people were recognizing something as pretty valuable very early on. And if you go and look and see what they're doing today, maybe it serves as added value to see what they're thinking about going forward from here.
Chris:
If they've got the eye, that gets onto what you were talking about — economies that are created around this NFT industry. And I would call that person a curator. Right? You might not be a collector. This is like a whole new class of profession. You can monetize that eye, like being a talent spotter. If you got that eye and you were just someone anywhere with an internet connection, all you need is the eye to go find the next biggest artist. And you start buying their NFTs at $5. Then, when they get discovered by the masses, boom! There's your pay off. And there's no middlemen. There's just your eye and the artist.
Joel:
Yeah. That definitely is something that can happen, and as we see, it does happen. There are some dangers associated with that, like if there's no integrity behind it, but ultimately things should work out the way that you'd want them to over time. And yeah, it's a very powerful thing.
Chris:
What do you mean about the integrity bit?
Joel:
Well, there are some projects where you see these groups that established reputations early on for something, and then they start to push things that may be not necessarily of value. Yet a lot of people see that but are right there because of the FOMO. And then those projects end up failing.
But again, the truth rises to the surface not too long after, so the model works. But yes, it is very powerful.
Chris:
That sounds like if someone was to start abusing the trust and reputation they've built up in the industry, say.
Joel:
Yeah, which would be counterproductive if they had an expectation to sustain themselves within the industry.
Chris:
Yeah. That's short-term thinking, absolutely. That would never, never work in investing anyways.
Joel:
The thing is though, that short-term thinking in such a fast world can be profitable, right?
Chris:
That is a good point.
Joel:
That's the trick. So you have to be savvy if you're in it; you have to watch. But again, it's not exclusive to this industry in this space. It's any space that comes up where there’s a bit of the Wild West and these are the things that happen. It's not exclusive to this. This is not uncommon. The fact that it's so widely adopted and so widely thought highly of makes it scale that much greater. You're attracting some very bright minds from around the world, right? You're looking at things where some of the stakes are a little bit higher, but yeah, it's no different than any other innovation that we've seen.
Chris:
Sure. How do we explain to the amount that's being invested though? I've wrote down the question. Is it simply the accessibility of NFTs that anyone technically with an Ethereum (ETH, Tech/Adoption Grade “A-”) smartphone wallet can get in the game? Is it simply access that's causing the surge, or is it something else?
Joel:
Well, I think that the access is certainly a draw. I mean, it's kind of ironic that you would suggest that, because a lot of the critique of the space revolves around the inability to access it. But the truth is it is quite easy once you get the hang of it. And the idea that I don't have to travel to the other side of the world to go look at a physical piece of art and can now access something in its optimal form right here, right now by clicking a button and taking ownership certainly that helps the cause.
I think that it's kind of the fact that we've had something sitting for so long. When we go back to talking about the internet over the past 20 years, we have this understanding of what this is, and so once you kind of understand how big it is now. And then you introduce an innovation, a technology that is able to monetize that, right, and create an economy around it. Well, everybody already knows how scalable this is. So it becomes almost a no brainer to be able to kind of invest time and energy into the space.
The other big point I would make about all of this, that I think is critical, is that up until really this year, I would say, most of the innovation around cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is very backend focused. Right? Very, not relatable to the average person.
Chris:
Using the infrastructure and stuff like that.
Joel:
Yeah. But that's the way it needs to be, right? People don’t necessarily understand currencies and all of that; they don't really — that isn't something that they can relate to. But all of a sudden, 2021 hits, and you have decentralized finance (DeFi), right? The first portion of 2021, you have a lot of institutional adoption. And then, all of a sudden, now we're talking about digital art. Well, it's the first thing that people can say is really, “Wow, I get this.” This is what cryptocurrency is about. This is what blockchain technology is about. I understand art. I understand what looks nice and what I want. So I'm all in, right?
I can see that this has been successful, but I've been on the sidelines because I haven't really connected with it. Now, I see something that I connect with that’s an on-ramp to exposure to cryptocurrency because I can't have exposure to the NFT space and digital art without having exposure to cryptocurrency. And now I'm a lot more comfortable because now I feel like I get it a little bit. So I think that also has a lot to do with it.
Chris:
That is a good one. That is a very good one. Yeah. The digital assets in the first era just seem overly complex. And then, you have to get into a lot of data and math to figure out the values.
It's awfully engaging, that's the other thing. The art world is both intellectually and emotionally engaging. It's just more fun at the end of the day. So that's got a lot to do with it, I imagine.
Joel:
Sure. Yeah. When cryptocurrencies come up and blockchain comes up, quite often, the first step towards innovation is always going to the money. Right?
Chris:
Sure.
Joel:
It has to be because that's where things get going the fastest. The idea has always been, I believe, that there are these many applications beyond this decentralized technology. And we're dipping into that now, which is great. We're finally starting to see that.
There were years — I'd say between 2013 to 2016, 2017, 2018 — where there was a lot of frustration. Now, we've got to start getting that frontend stuff out. o it’s been very exciting to see that kind of breakthrough this year.
Chris:
Absolutely. So I’d say that the NFT space is deserving of the hype. I looked at the statistic: In the first half of 2021 alone, NFT sales reached $2.5 billion, which is like, Jesus, that is huge. So—
Joel:
It's definitely huge and it's impressive. But I think that when you look at the potential of what we have on the internet and the potential and the scope and the scalability of the totality of everything, we're just scratching the surface. I mean, this is nothing.
It's a tremendous success because we've seen this growth, but again, still I think most people don't really have exposure or know what we're doing here, so we don't even know how far this is going to go. It's great, very exciting, very encouraging, but still, when the conversation comes up around a bubble, certainly there are going to be periods of pullback without exception. That's the nature of the beast. That's the way that we work as human beings. That's the way that psychology goes. And so there are going to be pullbacks.
But a bubble ... well, I wouldn't be so sure to call it a bubble. I would rather just see what happens. We're going to probably have a nice period of correction. There's a lot of crap that comes along in these initial waves of success, and so people jump on. But these are necessary moves towards ultimately a more constructive, higher outlook. So, I would step away from calling it a bubble. I don't think that that's the case.
Chris:
Sure, absolutely. So, someone who sees those numbers, it's like, “Okay, there's clearly money to be made here. How on Earth do I make money out of the NFT space?”
I suppose there's only three logical answers to that which are: create and sell your own NFTs, buy and sell other people's NFTs or build a platform that allows people to trade NFTs. In my mind, those are the ... that's it. Those are the only three options. What do you think?
Joel:
As far as the only three options as far as what?
Chris:
If I was an investor and I'm like, how do I actually make money with NFTs? Those are my sole three options.
Joel:
Yeah. I mean, if you are interested in making money with NFTs, yeah, you can create them, you can invest in them and you can invest in applications that are built around them. Right? So yeah, I think it's pretty basic that those should be the ways that you need to take on exposure to NFT. So you can do it as a creator or as an investor.
Chris:
Or as a collector, curator, whatever we want to call those people, right?
Joel:
Yeah.
Chris:
The problem is though, there are so many. It's bad enough figuring out which 11,000 [crypto assets] now available that you want to invest in, but NFTs take it one step further in terms of complexity.
When you see these NFT collections released, there are often thousands of NFTs in each collection. But I looked at this one, Doja Cat, which is this music artist, is releasing this two-tier system of NFTs with 26,000 collectibles. So those aren’t copies, that's like different versions. So what's an investor to do? How do you navigate this massive minefield of chaos?
Joel:
Yeah. So the first thing I would say is that NFTs are not some magic solution to everything. Just because you have one doesn't mean that everything's going to work. What it does mean is that there's a tool for people that do have something to add. So again, there's going to be a lot of froth. That's the first thing I would say.
As far as extrapolating beyond, based on what you just said, I would say that when it comes to looking at these things ... you made the comparison between cryptocurrencies, so we're about looking at Bitcoin and ETH vs. these NFTs.
With Bitcoin and ETH, the fundamentals are more aligned with the analysis that would require looking at basic economic models and being able to assign a valuation, right? Here [with NFTs], it becomes a lot more subjective because we are talking about art.
To that end, I would say that it's very important to be able to first and foremost know what it is that the space represents. If you're looking at a piece of digital art without utility or anything like that, then you're looking at art. And so you should come at it the same way that you would come at looking at any piece of art. Therefore, if you're going to be in this and be serious about it, and you want to make money in it, well, if we're talking about art, then you have to love it, right? You have to first to love what you're going to be looking at.
At a minimum, I like to think of these things just like you would look at a trade in the markets. You don't know if the trade is going to go well, but all you can do is put all the effort and work into taking a position in the market. And once you take the position, you're left with no regret even if it doesn’t work out, right? Not all trades are going to work out.
If you do that, then if it doesn't work out, you're left with a lot of outside value added, knowing that you were disciplined, that you waited, you understood that not everything's going to go your way, but you kind of changed the way that people are expected to react when it comes to markets. They're not very good about that.
It’s the same thing with the art. The way I look at it, [art] is an even better example. Because I'm looking at a piece of art, something that inspires me, something that I'm going to come home to every day that I'm going to look at, that's going to give me value beyond the monetary value. So I know that this is going to add value. That's kind of the first thing if I'm looking at it as a potential investor.
Another thing you have to think about is who is the artist that you're investing in. Do you feel that this is an artist that's here for a day? A week? Or is this an artist that was there before this all started and who will be there well after.
And you want to look at what the artist is doing. If you're looking at a project, like the one that you said, well, how innovative is that project? How likely is it that somebody else could come along and do a similar project? What are they doing that's kind of maybe changing the game a little bit?
So there are a lot of different components that come into this to be able to potentially have a good opportunity to be profitable. I think there's a lot of opportunity, but you have to be smart about it. You can't just jump on things without having a checklist of things that you need to look at to be able to hopefully also benefit financially from these things.
Chris:
Yeah. Otherwise, you're just gambling, right?
And that made me think. You described it very similarly to the way one would trade financial assets. Certain criteria for entering a trade must be satisfied.
And, actually, it doesn't matter whether it does [succeed] in the long run or in the short term. What matters is that you tick off all the rules for a trade. And as long as it meets the criteria, it’s considered a good trade, whether it makes money or not.
So you just rattled off a little list there of a similar strategy, and I call that strategy for low-risk NTF investments. You've got to love it. Look at the artist. What's the art?
Joel:
Yeah. I know. Let’s go back to the trading a little bit, because I do come from that background. Now, I've always said that if you want to be successful as a trader, there's a rule [to follow] that I implemented years ago. That sounds kind of wishy-washy and cheesy a little bit, but it's a way to kind of build in some quantitative metrics to your trading without having to have any knowledge of quantitative risk management.
[The rule] is, do I love this trade? Like, do I love this trade? Because there's not going to be a day that goes by, not a minute or an hour, where you don't sit down and say, “I like this trade.” We're always going to be able to say that, especially now that we can click a button to execute a trade. There's never going to be a moment where you don't say to yourself, “I like this.”
But if you do that, you're going to be taking a lot of trades, and what's going to end up happening is when it doesn't work out, you're going to get a snowball because you're going to end up saying, “Why did I take that? I didn't love it, but I liked it.”
By putting that in your head, [asking yourself] if you love a trade, it automatically reduces significantly the number of positions you're going to be taking. And it leaves you in a place where you're going to be feeling good about the decision making and the process, which most people can't get behind.
So it's the same thing. I try to apply that to this, right? There are going to be a lot of projects, especially with everything coming out right now. And you can't even keep up. So you have to be able to kind of find a way to be able to say, “Okay, I can't get caught up in everything, I don't have the bankroll for it or the bandwidth for it, so I'm just going to look at things that just hit me in the face so hard in a good way that I just can't turn away.”
Chris:
That was good. I like that. Reducing the frequency of your trades, whether that be in traditional investing, crypto investing or the NFT thing, preserve your capital for those "do I love this" trade opportunities. I like that.
Joel:
And again, I'm actually putting out a piece about this. It’s very similar to financial markets and there are lessons to be learned right now that are only being learned right now.
So, for example, I come from a market that was considered very forward in terms of the access, the currency market. It’s 24 hours; I always have the access to it. And the more you have access to a market, the more potential there is for downfall, because I'm going to say more and more, “I like this trade, I like this trade, I like this trade,” and you're going be up shit's creek.
We're in a place right now where the world is moving very fast. Now we're into cryptocurrencies where not only is it 24/5, it's 24/7. There's no stop. And that means that there's just more happening. And so the importance of reducing that frequency is that much more essential, in my opinion, to being successful, whether it's taking a risk on the financial market side or in the NFT space.
Chris:
Sure. That's the thing. More activity, there's more opportunity. So accept the fact that you're always going to be missing out purely because there's so many opportunities. Get comfortable with that. Don't worry about it. There's always another trade.
Joel:
There's always going to be another trade. There's always going to be another NFT.
Chris:
That's a beautiful thing. Right.
So, this whole space, the NTF space, has got to the point where, like we just said, the complexity and so on, is just a research minefield. It's gotten to the point where investors really need some extra help in this area.
So, you’re heading up, I believe at Weiss Ratings, a new research service that's dedicated to NFTs. Is that right?
Joel:
That's correct. So that's exactly what is going to be happening. And again, I come from a strategy side, from the financial market side. And because of the fact that I was and continue to be a currency trader, and because I was on social media at a very early time, I was introduced to Bitcoin very early.
I was on a peer-to-peer social network and was a currency trader, so I was right at the center of everything and it kind of fell into my lap. That gave me a lot of time to be there well ahead of when the added applications that came — mostly predominantly with the Ethereum blockchain — and was able to jump in and to be excited about recognizing all these applications.
So, I've been there. I entered the space purely from my own interests. I absolutely love it. And there's certainly a lot of opportunity and, I believe, money to be made in this space.
And the other interesting thing about it, and I have to go back and say I absolutely love it, right? I love art and I love looking at this. I love the cross section of art and culture and technology. It's just so exciting to be a part of [the NFT space], so how can I not love it?
Currency trading becomes rather boring. What is so funny about that is that, while currencies weren’t always exciting anyway, since 2008 — since the Federal Reserve hijacked financial markets — things have become very flat. Volatility has been exceptionally low. And so you don't have that same excitement around the things that made those markets so exciting. Right?
And here is a new market that's an offshoot, an extension, where you can take this skillset and you can look at something that's really exciting. There're other things layered in there — things that you're passionate about in your nonprofessional life, so how can you not kind of be excited and want to be involved?
So, yeah, the idea is to create a product around this new, exciting space, and to come at it with that experience from the traditional side before looking to find value and opportunities as they come.
Chris:
Exactly. I think that's what the viewer is probably looking for. So, where's this at? It's going to be a newsletter format. Is that right?
Joel:
Yeah.
Chris:
Yep. Okay. And what about, is it ... How—
Joel:
A weekly.
Chris:
Weekly, has that been decided?
Joel:
Yeah.
Chris:
Okay. Does it have a name, the service?
Joel:
No, we're still trying to work out the final details on all of that and the launch date, but hopefully over the coming weeks, we'll have something.
Chris:
Okay, cool. And what's going to be in these newsletters exactly?
Joel:
It's basically going to be my analysis of the week — keeping up with the market and all the things that are coming down the pipeline because, as we said earlier, there's a lot coming through. You can barely keep up.
I've been in it since the beginning, so I think I have a good eye for being able to recognize what might be significant and what isn't. And so I'm here to sift through it all and to find the things that I find compelling. And hopefully those things will translate to the viewers, the readers, the subscribers, to find these ideas compelling and to be able to take advantage of them.
Chris:
Sure. There's actually a little distinction I'd like you to make there. So say, take an existing collection, like Bored Apes, they were already out there in the market trading, right? So you could treat them like any other asset. They'll have eventually a candlestick chart of the historical price and all that kind of stuff, right? But they already exist. So that's one way of investing in them. But what about the ... What do you call them, the origin event, the minting event, the drop, what do you call that when the collection is first created and sold?
Joel:
Yeah. The minting of the new collection. Yeah.
Chris:
So are you going to be keeping your eye out when you're saying that?
Joel:
Oh yeah. Sure.
Chris:
You're going to keep your eye on what's coming?
Joel:
Yeah. I mean, as an example, let's say that we're at time right now where we could be on the verge of seeing a bit of a correction within the space. So that correction could be used as an opportunity to find real value in existing pieces of art or existing projects, right? Avatar projects. There's that side of it. It also could be that there's a new project coming up that's super interesting that I think that is worth dipping into and taking on some exposure to.
So, I'm not exclusive to new projects or existing projects, just about where I think that there's value, really. I mean, it comes down to, again, like anything with investing, there's price and there's value. And for the most part, price and value are kind of interlinked, they're the same, but that doesn't make for an exciting market.
What makes for an exciting market is the volatility that comes, which is the disconnect between price and value, which is what we're looking for. We're looking for disconnect between price and value. That could be at the inception of a project, the minting of project, where it's very early on and you recognize the value and there's a tremendous disconnect between what the price is and where the price should be. Or it could be into a correction where the market's dropped too heavily, and we think that there's an opportunity to be able to kind of take advantage of this disconnect between price and value before it comes back together, hopefully in our favor.
Chris:
That is beautiful. That sounds exciting. So Joel, that was great. I think we'll leave it there for today. So thank you very much for being on the Weiss Crypto Sunday Special.
Joel:
My pleasure, Chris. Really nice to meet you.
Chris:
Thank you. That's going to do it for today's edition of the Weiss Crypto Sunday Special with me, your host, Chris Coney. Until the next one, it's bye for now.
