The Super Bowl Goes Crypto With Alex Tapscott

By Michael Hainsworth

Crypto currencies were everywhere during the Super Bowl. LeBron James promoted Crypto.com. Larry David compared missing out on Crypto to thinking the wheel would be a fad. When Coinbase offered free Bitcoin for customers who sign up, after 20 million hits to the website the app crashed.

“Well, obviously it worked,” laughs Alex Tapscott, the Managing Director of the Digital Asset Group at Ninepoint. “Whether it was money well spent or not, I think that we can say it was probably a good investment. I think, what's more interesting is, what does it mean or what does it signal to the world?”

Tapscott admits the Dotcom Bubble of 1999-2000 saw a lot of companies that used the Super Bowl to promote their services ended up going bankrupt, leading to the belief in some quarters that a Super bowl ad means an industry is at the top of the market. Tapscott isn’t so sure that applies today.

“I think it's a sign of mainstream interest and mainstream adoption,” he argues. The fact that the website for Coinbase crashed because of an influx of new signups and new users, Tapscott says, makes a strong case for the underlying technology.

The underlying technology is underpinning a convergence between traditional Crypto companies such as exchanges and custodians and banks and Fintech companies in the traditional space. Even next-generation companies like PayPal or Square, strike or Robin Hood and Wealthsimple are engaging in the business of making finance easier. TurboTax recently announced a relationship with Coinbase to offer customers the ability to turn their tax refunds into Coinbase-held crypto currency.

Crypto companies are getting traditional Fintech lines of business. Tapscott points out the FTX ad featuring Larry David just announced they’ll enable stock trading. This will allow trading in more traditional assets using Crypto funds. “That, in many respects, mirrors the path of companies like Robin Hood in the US that offer equity trading, but also offer crypto trading,” Tapscott points out.

He adds that we’re seeing a blurring of the lines between Fintech and Crypto but that there’s a “third stallion” in the race that most people aren’t thinking about.

“Ultimately, most FinTech innovation, is just digital wallpaper,” says Tapscott. He calls it a new veneer on top of existing services from banks and other traditional intermediaries. “It gives us a sort of fresh perspective but fundamentally, that's still what's happening,” he adds. Tapscott sees Decentralized Finance as is trying to do is reimagine financial services from first principles.

Tapscott believes Web 3.0, built on the foundation that underpins all crypto, Blockchain, will have a greater impact on the world than Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. And he calls innovation in this next generation space as critical for Canada. “If you want to maintain your economic lead and you want to maintain a dynamic economy,” he argues, “and you want to create a lot of value, then this is a matter of national security.” As the United States makes moves to regulate crypto, Tapscott sees big opportunities for Canada to be a leader because he believes we can create the conditions for capital and for people to do business in this space here so long as we create the conditions to make doing business in Decentralized Finance attractive. That requires an acknowledgement that the old rules don’t necessarily apply as many of them were drafted back when moving money around was done with horse and buggy.

“By creating clarity, I think you're going to see a lot of new businesses be drawn to the country,” he states.

So was there a specific Super Bowl crypto ad that Tapscott liked the most? “I definitely liked the FTX ad with Larry David, I thought that was absolutely brilliant. They played into that beautifully with him questioning the worth of all of these important inventions over time, and then doing the same thing for crypto.”