good morning it is 4:00 p.m. at christie's auction house in london, england. 11:00 a.m. on wall street, and "squawk alley" is live ♪ ♪ ♪

happy friday we made it welcome to "squawk alley." i'm jon fortt with carl quintanilla and deirdre bosa today we are diving deep into the nft phenomenon finding answers to your questions on nonfungible tokens trying to get to the bottom of why the tweet on your screen just sold for $2.5 million or why someone paid nearly $600,000 to own this meme digital art pioneer beeple is back with us after selling a digital artwork for $69 million at christie's yesterday. and later gronk joins us as he leans into the craze becoming the first nfl player to offer items backed by nfts on the way we'll discuss who the winners are, maybe losers, and how it impacts you and your money. deirdre? >> not easy questions, but we

will dig into it all and our first two guest this is hour were early to the nft party helping celebrities with their crypto aspirations before selling their site nifty gateway to the winklevoss twins. duncan and griffin foster. good morning thank you for joining us >> hey, guys thanks for having us >> hi. great to be here >> griffin, let me come to you first. everyone is talking about beeple, that $69 million price tag, i think, exceeded everyone's expectation we'll ask beeple if it exceeded his later. was this a mainstream moment for the nft market how big do you think it's going to grow to by, say, the end of the year >> yeah, that's a great question i think it just shows nfts are here to stay a few weeks ago on a podcast i predicted soon artwork would pass any physical artwork in terms of record sales price, and i think that will happen by the end of the year.

it's just a matter of time before we see maybe a billion. they're here to stay >> if i could add on -- >> i remember you did say that go ahead, duncan, please did it exceed your expectations? >> it absolutely ex receipted my expectations i think a great compare ton 10 make is uber where when uber first started they were looking at the potential size of the market and they looked at the total amount of money people spent on black cars, but that actually ended up being a pretty bad comparison because uber made transportation so much more accessible the total market was far bigger than the existing market for black cars i honestly think nfts are doing the same thing for art it's far easier to buy an nft than physical artwork. i know a ton of people who are nft collectors instead that greater accessibility, i think, is going to make nfts a larger market than physical art when all is said and done. >> okay, i think it's sort of easier to understand through the

lens of artwork, but just yesterday we were talking about on the other end of the spectrum, griffin, issuing its own nfts and it makes me think back to that junk wax era of trading cards when supply just overwhelmed demand and everything became a trading card once everything becomes an nft do they lose appeal or value how does that work out in the long run >> it is a great question. the creative space of what can you do with nfts is incredibly vast so many people have audiences, so many creators nowadays, so many people who have more than 100,000 followers on instagram, and eventually they will all be making their own nfts, which does run the risk of saturating the market at the same time a lot of artists are in it for the right reasons, and this is rt part of the skill of being an artist it's like investing in a company, investing in their career and betting they're going to drive the price of their works up that's something beeple has done incredibly well and something we'll see nft artists do

incredibly well, too we've had a number of artists on nifty gateway who have been fantasticen vestments because they're thinking about their career the right way that's what i would think of if i were an investor >> duncan, and forgive me if i'm asking the wrong one of you the question because i can't tell you apart yet. the one who wasn't just talking, beeple, when he was first getting into this, was connecting the nft digital artwork also to physical artwork that then people who made the purchase would be able to unpack and have that experience so it's not entirely either/or, right? in a sense i could see nfts being a way of authenticating artwork and fueling the overall market >> well, jon, the way i like to talk about this is, you know, authenticating physical artwork it's definitely a problem but it's something there are already great systems in place to do it. we have galleries, auction houses, et cetera. people who are trained in authenticating physical artwork.

whereas with digital artwork prior to nfts, they were impossible to authenticate and it was basically impossible if you were a digital artist like beeple, you couldn't sell your artwork. that's why i think nfts have had more of an impact on digital art in the near term because they were solving a problem that was completely 100% unsolved i think in the next few years we will see more movement into the physical i'm a big fan of bringing my nfts into the physical you can see behind me i have a screen where i love to show off my collection this is a piece by say adams right here and later this month actually one of our artists is doing a physical nft show in atlanta, greg mike so i think especially nfts became popular during the pandemic when it was really difficult to do physical events, but i think once the world starts to open up a little more we're going to see some really exciting physical shows that involve nfts >> duncan, that's what i'm

saying if i were a young artist starting out today, first of all, chances are digital would be a big part of what i'm doing, right? why wouldn't anything that i do be backed by nfts? why would i have to want to deal with middle men for authentication giving them a cut, giving them control when it cancentdecentralized? isn't that what beeple is showing the way toward >> absolutely. i can't think of a good reason either and i think a lot more young artists are choosing digital and a lot of the artists most successful on our platform some are quite young. one of the most well-known nft artists is only 18 years old, and he just bought a house in seattle using the money he's made selling his artwork so i think similar to the way that social media platforms allowed content creators to become famous at a very young age i think nifty gateway and other nft platforms will allow artists to become not just famous but financially

independent at a very young age which is very cool for us to see. >> so, to that point, duncan, i'm wondering obviously people are looking at the money made yesterday and are asking, well, what is stopping me from getting into that line of business myself can you talk about the barriers to entry how easy is this >> it really depends on who you are and what you're trying to create i will say nifty gateway as a platform is cure ated so we hav to sign off on all the content on our platform and do a release once a day we're only capable of releasing at most 50 to 60 collections a month. there are platforms anyone can go create anything, but with those platforms you sort of have to bring your own collector base if you do a launch on nifty gateway we have a group of collectors who shows up and likes to collect the work we put out. i think it's totally possible -- sorry, go ahead. >> no, sorry to interrupt you.

to that point, griffin, i wonder -- i know that you have created nifty as the nfts but is there anything you wouldn't make into an nft as you sort of pioneer this market, do you need to have a standard, some things you simply won't do because you don't think they're going to have value >> yeah, absolutely. like i said, it's really easy to turn something into an nft i could take a picture of my bedroom and turn it into an nft. if i were an influencer on the scale of a jake paul or something maybe i would be tempted to do that long term the market will return nfts that have a lot of thought put into them. we tell collectors to buy and hold for a five to ten year time frame. >> so you're saying influencers should not issue nfts? is that what you're saying >> i don't think they shouldn't, i think they should issue nfts the right way, something thoughtful, something that ten years from now you'll be proud you put out, do something you

put a lot of work into and that tells a story and has meaning. the exact same thing is true in physical art the art works that have a story tend to do very well >> fair enough duncan and griffin, thank you so much for being with us the co-founders of nifty gateway. i'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more from you in the future. carl >> thank you so much >> thanks, guys. >> a great discussion, guys, thank you. we'll keep one eye on the markets. nasdaq down 1.5% dow record high. when we come back super bowl champ rob gronkowski will talk to us on the launch of his nft trading cards as we continue to focus on this hour i have an ide. oh yeah, you going to place it? not until i'm sure. why don't you call td ameritrade for a strategy gut check? what's that? you run it by an expert, you talk about the risk and potential profit and loss. could've used that before i hired my interior decorator. voila!

maybe a couple throw pillows would help. get a strategy gut check from our trade desk. ♪♪ (man) i'm a verizon engineer, part of the team that built 5g right, the only one from america's most reliable network. we designed our 5g to make the things you do every day better. with 5g nationwide, millions of people can now work, listen, and stream in verizon 5g quality. and in parts of many cities where people can use massive capacity, we have ultra wideband, the fastest 5g in the world. this is the 5g that's built for you. this is 5g built right. only from verizon.

when you switch to xfinity mobile, you're choosing to get connected to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $300 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device,

or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. the artist behind the record breaking $69 million nft at christie's is coming up soon beeple is back, and rob gronkowski is on the move in nfts next. we see harnessing natural gas

unleashing the promise of cleaner energy. at emerson, we advance the safety and efficiency of the lng industry to meet the world's need for reliable, affordable electricity. emerson. consider it solved. new projects means new project managers.

affyou need to hire.ty. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home.

our next guest is the first nfl player to get involved in the nft craze. launching a new line of exclusive digital trading cards this morning featuring his best super bowl moments joining us on a cnbc exclusive super bowl champ rob gronkowski, tampa bay buccaneers tight end along with the creator and rob's producer gentlemen, congrats. good to see you both

rob, welcome back. >> thank you, man. thank you for having me. >> so i've got to know how this was pitched to you my understanding is you learned about it during the season, that mark cuban was a bit of an influence, but who came to you and what was your first reaction on this? >> you know, i've been just hearing about this crypto money for a couple months now. i have a good friend, guy to a mineral lake all the time throughout the season to recover, and my good friend there has been talking about crypto money for months now. there's been teammates talking about crypto money i've had friends talking about crypto money, and i never really understood it. during the season that crypto stuff, i'm live, i'm not digital during the season. football is live so i was like, yeah, that's sweet and everything i didn't know much about it. and now that the season is over, adam, joe from medium rare came to me and told me about these nfts, nonfungible tokens, and how crypto money works, how this is all working and everything. i'm not no expert or anything

but i'm starting to learn about it now and i'm starting to understand it and i saw a good friend who just had one of the biggest nfts in history and i took a lot of advice and feedback from him on how to do things throughout these nfts so adam, joe, blou they helped me drop one of my first nfts and be one of the first athletes to. the auction is live now and it will be a success. it's going to be amazing >> yeah. we're looking at the site right now looking at some of the high bids coming in adam, rob is clearly the intellectual property here can you discuss the business case >> yeah, absolutely. what rob is doing is disrupting how athletes distribute and sell their memorabilia. nba top shop approved this as a market and something real and here to last rob is the first athlete to do

it independently and, like i said, he's completely disrupting the market and showing us athletes can do this on their own outside of the leagues, outside of their normal trading card deals, and can get right to the consumer directly through the nft marketplace. and it's really overwhelming to see it hasn't even been 24 hours yet and we have hundreds of thousands of dollars in bids, hundreds of bids, i think just proves this is a real business that's here to stay for a very long time. >> hey, rob, it's good to see you. it's jon fortt tell me what memorabilia means to you not just as an athlete but as somebody who has built a brand and a reputation over time and then the ability to have maybe a little bit more influence on how that process works than there's been in the past >> well, what memorabilia has meant to me in my lifetime, let me just explain this when i was a kid, my brothers and i collected every single trading card out there

if you go back to our house in buffalo, my dad still has our closet full and it's literally stacked up to four feet high of trading cards. we collected hockey cards. we collected football cards. we collected baseball cards. we still have them all when we go back to buffalo we've been huge collectors we loved it growing up as a kid. and now to be able to bring this to another level to the digital world, the digital assets is just remarkable. it's not a trading card you have on hand but it's a digital trading card so it's a new era and it's just great to be that guy to kick it off, to start this new boom that's going to happen and be that first athlete to get on it >> rob, my brother had a big collection as well and, unfortunately, we don't know where it is anymore. so i wonder following in that theme do you own any nfts now? have you been buying any >> no, i do not currently own any nfts but i'm looking into it

now. >> do you plan on it >> i do plan on it big time. do you know how many people -- i'm just new to this crypto world, this nft world. how many of my friends, my girlfriend's friends, sisters, boyfriends heading me up, do you have any nfts. i am going to. >> let me ask you then what is the top nft sports highlight that you would pay for >> oh, the top nft -- i love when people get dunked on, so if an nba player came out with an nft where they're just smashing the dunk right over someone else, that's what i like i like that type of action >> adam, i'm really thinking about your kind of core business, the shaq's fun house

versus gronks beach and yet you went into the virtual space during the pandemic, but you know the value of live expe experiences. what do you think perhaps needs to be attached to nfts, if anything, to make them as meaningful as some of the experiences, items, you've built your business on in the past >> yeah, absolutely. you're spot on there it's really about connecting the digital to the physical and nothing will replace that live experience or in-person physical experience on that cue we actually with the rob card you have a meet and greet, you get to go to a game with him as his guest for our highest bidder so really connecting the physical and digital world you need that for these nfts to really be special. kings of leon, major rock band, they just did their nft last week and they did six of them that included front row tickets to any show for the rest of your

life so every tour they do you get front row tickets. you get to meet the band so it's not just about the digital, quote/unquote, nft here but the fun, physical experience that really takes it to another level. >> adam, really quick, before a final question for rob, the beeple auction yesterday was mind blowing obviously there were some art experts who said it's great, it's astounding, but for such a new art form -- and we'll talk to beeple later in the hour -- it's a little dangerous because it sets up such high expectations for this new world do you worry about that? >> yeah, without a doubt seeing this firsthand every day, millions and millions of dollars. beeple, $69 million for a piece of art, it's incredible. i think the third highest ever auctioned by a living artist quite incredible for a digital piece of art and now we're seeing it, look, rob's auction has been open less than 24 hours and already

hundreds of thousands in bids, millions of dollars every day transacted in different nfts and it's going really fast and it's really unbelievable i think the technology is going to stay here for a long time i think the prices will even out as more and more nfts continue to get distributed on the market but the technology will be here as part of our life for a very long time. >> finally, rob, please forgive me, one football question because schefter today says brady has reached an agreement on a fewer four-year extension, voids the one-year extension, locks him in for the season. >> that is great news. i'll be back playing football next year. i had a great year last year and we won it all. i'm a four-time champ now. i will be back playing football. this is my first time being a free agent in my whole career, so i am going to go through that process. but my eyes are set to return back to tampa, but at the same time, i'm going to dim my toes in the free agency because i'm a

one-year deal guy every year now. i will be a free agent every year i want to see when it's like to be a free agent so i know every single year what to expect >> that's fantastic. we are so happy for you, all your continued success, rob, and congratulations again on an amazing season and super bowl win. and on this, we'll watch the auction. guys, appreciate it very much. >> thanks so much. >> thank you for having us >> he's a nonfungible tight end, carl >> good one. meantime, let's check on the markets and what a week it's been for that fomo trade a shaky start. fears over rising rates and inflation. today we are risk or fomo off the qqq etf that tracks the nasdaq 100, off 1 1/3 of a percent and the qqq on a gain

for the week, a really turbulent one. for the bigger picture look at some of last year's darlings how they've been doing the last month. peloton, zoom video, docusign, tesla, all of those names down more than 15% over the last month alone and after huge gains last year. john, it really comes down to the valuation questions we've been talking about really all week is the momentum still there? is it fomo, fear of missing out or fogk which i've heard, fear of getting killed? >> we will definitely see. and right now we'll take a quick break with the dow higher by almost half a percent, but the nasdaq and s&p both in the red this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

welcome back i'm rahel solomon and here is your cnbc news update this hour. the virginia cavaliers will not get to play again after their buzzer beating run last night due to a positive covid-19 test. the atlantic coast conference has canceled virginia's semifinal game against georgia tech this is now the second game canceled in the acc tournament in the last two days the new york city prosecutor investigating former president trump says he will not run for re-election. he won a case before the supreme court instrumental in the release of his tax records and prosecuted harvey weinstein on sexual abuse charges myanmar protesters are being tear gassed again today.

at least 12 demonstrators killed on thursday. one of the deadliest days since the coup began an italian fashion giant benton is suspending all new orders from myanmar due to the violence there. the company says the move is meant to call out freedom and rights violations happening in myanmar. you are now up to date carl, i'll send it back to you thanks, we'll talk to you later. it has been a wild week for mega cap tech, as you probably know by now the volatility continues today with some weakness in big tech dom chu will recap what we've seen this week >> yes, sir, carl. even today we're seeing a bit of that roller coaster ride we're off the session low for the nasdaq composite if you look at some of the big stocks we care the most about, the ones that have the biggest driving force behind the nasdaq and the s&p 500 overall it's apple, microsoft, amazon, alphabet, by far the biggest weightings in boast indices. off 1.5% or so across the board.

alphabet down about 2% speaking of those names that are driving a lot of the action remember, also, those work from home names, docusign, an earnings catalyst there, down 7% peloton shares down 6% zoom video down 3% and wayfair down about 2% as well so you can see the valuation concerns not just in mega cap technology but some of the high growth names behind the work from home and stay-at-home trade. another place to keep a close eye on is tesla. over the course of the last year or so a massive 509% gain but a huge move lower over the course of the last couple of months for tesla shares we're finding a little bit of movement off some of the technical levels that we've seen around moving averages but, again, tesla shares in focus down 2.5% and one other place to watch, deirdre, the big names in chinese internet now this is an etf, the ticker

kweb, off 4% in trading right now. this has many of the big names like 10alibaba some antitrust actions being taken, fines it fell down to its lows as of late keep an eye on the big internet names in china a lot of volatility in those names. back over to you >> we will indeed. thank you, dom meanwhile, take a look at your screen, the meme on it just sold -- where is it? it just sold for nearly $600,000 okay, we're going to tease it. we're going to show it after the creator of nyan cat joins us to talk nfts stay with us ♪♪ ♪ now here we go ♪ ♪ i can't help it if i'm poppin' see them watch like ♪ ♪ who that girl ♪ ♪ it's outrageous how this flavour got em shook like ♪

♪ hold up ♪ ♪ work work work it out ♪ ♪ ah ha ♪ ♪ i hit it back with a brand new style ♪ ♪ like woah ♪ ♪ bring it up into the fold get wild ♪ ♪ we turning up all the way on the dial ♪ ♪ like woah ♪ ♪ baby i'm fabulous so come on ♪ limitless possibilities. the boldly new 2021 nissan kicks. ♪♪ ♪ if your money is working toward the same goals, why keep it in different places? sofi is a one-stop shop for your finances- designed to work better together. spend with sofi and get cash back rewards that automatically go toward your goals. like investing in stocks, etfs, and crypto. that's better together. or pay down your sofi debt sooner. that's better together. and that's how sofi is helping millions get their money right. ♪ ♪ keeping your oysters business growing ♪ has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base

claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo

meantime it almost broke the art internet yesterday, that's our next guest thereas he sold his 5,000 days piece as an nft for $69 million. wow. there's the reaction joining us now exclusively is digital artist mike winkleman, otherwise known as beeple. >> what's up what's up! how are we doing you have your good news and bad news good news is i smashed it

yesterday. we made $70 million. the bad news is we broke the hype button. i broke it it's gone. it's dead. >> you did you definitely broke the hype button, but you can afford to make some new buttons. >> that's true >> a lot new buttons beeple, since we last talked, i've tried to do my homework, look into this and kind of understand the road that you've gone down to get here. even the idea it's not just about digital art, though your digital art you've been prolific and it's provocative, it's deep, it's interesting, but you also had a vision to tie this in with physical experiences so where does this go from here? >> yeah, i think there's a bunch of different ways this can go and i look at nfts as being such a blank slate, honestly, even beyond digital art obviously you had gronk on with sports collectibles. i think with concert tickets, you saw kings of leon. i think this is a technology that has so many youth cases and

with restrictions with covid we're honestly not able to see a lot of the use cases so i feel like we're at the beginning of scratching the surface of what this could be used for >> some of it, correct me where i'm wrong here, is about luxury and uniqueness because i look across what kings of leon did with the front row seats for life, what gronk is doing with the memorabilia, what you're doing with this artwork and without having to have as many middle men authenticates what it is you're getting and ties you to kind of the process of creation, the kind of possibility of being a patron in the old school sense, is that part of this, too? >> i think that's a big part of it, but i think, honestly, you're going to see this used for a bunch of very sort of mun mundane, quote unquote, boring things you buy a car and you get an nft. you buy a house, this instead of

a deed and this super complicated process we now go through to sort of verify ownership of a house it's an nft. boom, that means you own the house. a diploma. i think there are so many different things anytime you want to prove ownership of this, i think there's a use case here. and that's just the proving ownership. now as a financial instrument i think the ball game and alternate asset class that speaks to a younger generation that maybe doesn't want to own stocks and maybe isn't sort of, you know, corporations giving more money to corporations doesn't really appeal to them. >> right, an alternative investment class perhaps for the millennials as we certainly saw they were the popular bidders for your piece yesterday i love what you tweeted, a picks lated image of the mona lisa with the next chapter.

do you think your art will be accepted by art insti"in instit, have they contacted you. >> they have not but i think it will be accepted as any other art form it's art that's been created over the last 20 years and it's taken me 13 years to make this piece. it has craft, it has message, intent, nuance, and so i'm confident that digital art will be vuld viewed as another medium and will be accepted in the rest of the art world >> on that, beeple, what do you say to people who are skeptical

because they don't understand it what needs to happen to make sure this whole thing wasn't a disaster >> i think the technology and this concept of proving digital ownership of something is so -- it feels so inevitable that i think there's a lot of hype right now. again, the button is broken. there's a lot of hype. i think it's one of these things where we're going to get past that and you heard the last guest talk about that as well. i think in the beginning of the internet there was a lot of hype, too, and there was a bubble and the bubble burst. but it didn't kill the internet. people kept using the internet and so i think there could be a hype and it might wipe out a lot of the projects that didn't have real actual value, but i think the technology itself is sound enough it will outlive that and it's going to be something that is around for a while here >> right, and, beeple, we talked about that idea of oversaturation and specifically that junk wax era of trading cards at the top of the show with the nifty gateway founders. do you think there's a specific

kind of digital artist that can do what you've done, and then beyond digital art do you think some of the great physical artists of today that they can turn their art into nfts >> i think i definitely think so i think it's sort of tough to sort of quantify what's going to have lasting value i think looking at people who maybe have established a career outside of this space, that sort of shows that they already have some sort of proven value to the rest of the world. but it is very speculative and very hard at the moment and, yeah, to be quite honest i think people really need to be careful when investing in this stuff because historically the sort of top of the art world goes up in value, but a lot of the rest of the stuff will go down people do need to be very careful with this stuff. but i think in terms of the traditional art world coming to this nft world, absolutely i think you will see a bunch of traditional artists move more

digital and i think you'll see digital artists, like myself, move more into the physical space, as you can see that i have with the past releases that i have i really think this is such a blank canvas, it will open up a lot of possibilities for both sides to do some new, exciting things >> blank canvas, blank screen. as i was reading up on what you've done and what you're doing, it seems that there's a real time between people who have made money in crypto currencies particularly bitcoin but also people who are investing in buying this nft art. is your sense that maybe perhaps the price of bitcoin and some other crypto currencies are tied somewhat to the willingness and ability of some of today's investors in nft art to pay these prices >> 100%, absolutely. i think of crypto being on a tear the last six months, eight months, whatever i think absolutely that is

i think as this becomes more mainstream, i think you're going to see that less pronounced because, again, block chain is the technology that sort of enables this, but it doesn't really have that much to do with crypto in general. it's really just about proving ownership so it's more like a use case of this block chain technology versus being really sort of super tied to, like, crypto yes, 100%. i think the people who are interested in this now and know about it are people who have made money in crypto and so i think that is where you're seeing part of the sort of high valuations of some of this stuff. as it becomes more mainstream i think you will see that fade away a bit. >> what do you do now with your brand and your business? it seems to me there's some reclusive artists but you're not that >> i'm not. >> if i were a museum or a gallery, i'd be so excited to have you show up, right -- >> there you go! call one of your buddies at the moment and get this going!

i look at this, i look at the people who are collecting my work i do not look at them as collectors i look at them as ambassadors because, again, $70 million, that's an investment what are we talking about here this is past pretty pictures, in the big boy numbers. i look at it as, okay, if you're investing in my artwork, i want to see you get a return on that. i want to see that go up in value because that's good for me and it's good for you. i'm going to take this money and i'm going to reinvest it into what i'm doing making bigger and cooler projects and, yeah, i'm very much just at the beginning of what i think is possible with this stuff >> and i want to see you be a regular on cnbc, beeple. >> let's do it let's do it! >> don't get all big now that you've made your $70 million >> no, no, happy to come back anytime. i love cnbc. and we're going to get on cramer i do want to get on cramer, though >> all right we'll see what we can do, beeple

i know some people beeple, thank you. >> jon, as long as he brings that hype button, i'm sure he'll have many more very soon meantime the fireworks between google and microsoft continue on the hill this morning as brad smith testifies to the house some interesting citations in his testimony as well as. ylan, what are you hearing this morning? >> deirdre, two of big tech's biggest rivals have been testifying and resorting to verbal blows surrounding congressional hearing on antitrust and the impact on the news media microsoft president brad smith has been testifying today before the house judiciary committee in written testimony he slammed google's all-encompassing search and ad businesses as unprecedented and problematic. here is what he said directly to lawmakers. >> i hope that the subcommittee will continue its work to think more broadly about the fundamental lack of competition especially in search and digital advertising at the heart of not

just the decline in journalism but decline and challenge in many sectors of the economy. that, too, is worthy of consideration when it comes to potential new legislation. >> google fired back even before the hearing officially began it accused microsoft of trying to divert attention from its own problems and security vulnerabilities. it said in a statement they're reverting to the familiar playbook of attacking rivals and lobbying for regulations that benefit their own interests. they are now making self-serving claims and are even willing to break the way the open web works in an effort to undercut a rival. there had been bipartisan new legislation for publishers to band together to negotiate over ad pricing in the context of access and distribution of journalism microsoft supports that bill so this is not so much a partisan fight, guys, as an epic corporate battle and the gloves here are coming off and this is something that jon fortt identified all the way back in

2008 as a potential problem as google seeks to use the news media as a way to gain audience and establish dominance. guys, back to you. >> wow, yeah, you're right definite pepsi/coke analogs at work here. that's fascinating thank you. keep an eye on marvell this morning. added to the top pick list today. they say the recent sell-off is a buying opportunity overall, although nasdaq is off the lows we continue to watch dow with a fresh record high

- [narrator] grubhub perks give you deals on all the food that makes you boogie. (upbeat music) get the food you love with perks from- - [crowd] grubhub.

our next guest just sold his infamous meme nyan cat as an cm for $600,000 and now selling other popular memes like keyboard cat and bad luck brian by auction you know them if you were meming in the 2010s with us accidentally is nyan cat chris torres thank you for being here today >> thank you for having me good morning. >> explain this to me, are memes the new trading cards? could they be as valuable as nba nft highlights or do we run a risk here and this is a question i've been asking all hour of

oversaturating this satient. >> it's been ready this whole time and it's fascinating to see this big boom in it, and it's how it's all working out we have all of these big memes coming up. we have keyboard cat and grumpy cat and they're all a part of this whole genre of things called memes and they've existed for almost the beginning of the internet and it's kind of this thing where -- yeah. we have keyboard cat and all of these cool memes coming in and i know there are big collectors out there that want to own memes and just trade them and it's cool that we have that >> i know this isn't exactly your area, but something that we've been looking at here on cnbc over the last few months is this connection of memes to trading stocks and as an example, i wonder if you can

decipher ryan cohen, the chewy founder's gift last night that he tweeted he is, of course, connected to gamestop and being a board member and major shareholder he tweeted a scene from "dumb and dumber" which i'm not sure that we can show here, but is there any correlation between his ice cream posting before, this latest gif that can relate to a rise in a very popular stock with millennials >> you know, to be honest, i haven't actually seen that gif yet and whenever somebody creates something as long as it belongs to them it can definitely be an nft and if somebody believes in it that much and wants to collect it that much, it can become a valuable asset to the owner. >> chris, what do i get, though, if i'm buying a meme as an nft like, i can see if every time somebody used nyan cat that it

was like buying taylor swift's masters, if i can own something from what somebody else has with bragging rights and the biggest right of owning a meme nft is a promise from the actual creator itself, that this nft is the main board for that piece and that's a special thing and i know collectors are into supporting artists and nft is built on very talented artists and creators and i feel like memes this whole time have been tossed under the rug because original creators, they'll make something and it explodes without them and they'll see them sometimes big companies make millions of dollars without crediting the artists and i feel like these meme nfts are made to go straight back to the original artists to the artist and to the collector and they're just fun they're just fun things to collect and trade.

i really do think you'll -- >> i understand why this benefits the artist, but i wonder if you need to build some type of physical product or build around it that makes it more special do you think that is for the continued survival beyond the strong market that we're in right now or is it not important? >> i think it's super important. i think memes are internal on the internet and they're a big drive of force and they'll always have a message and they're always going to be relevant, and i really do think memes are going to be a big thing in this economy, and i think it will be pretty awesome. >> chris, why do you think people are buying them and they're fetching these major price tags to own something fun, as you say for bragging rights or is there more to it are memes becoming an alternative investment and are people who buy it, do you think they'll rise in value?

>> i've seen memes rising in value and i've seen memes and people stuff has had tremendous success and nyan cat, and i think it will lead to a bull run on things and things will just get more valuable from here. now that everybody is understanding how memes and nfts are working there's going to be more of a drive to get them. there's going to be more of a drive to be the one that owns them all and there's going to be more of a collective factor to it >> chris, we will see. certainly a meme bull market will be something to behold in the current market environment thanks so much, chris torres, creator of nyan cat. >> thank you >> what would a market day be without a mention of gamestop. definitely a stock you want to keep in mind it is up more than 7,000% and $2

and change, and today 2.76 although b of a reiterates its target of $10. we're back in a minute or disrupt the status quo. t-mobile for business uses unconventional thinking to help you realize new possibilities. like our new work from anywhere solutions, so your teams can collaborate almost anywhere. plus customer experience that finds solutions in the moment. ...and first-class benefits, like 5g with every plan. network, support and value without any tradeoffs. that's t-mobile for business. we started with computers. we didn't stop at computers. we didn't stop at storage or cloud. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of technology that can guide an astronaut back to safety. and help make a hospital come to you, instead of you going to it.

so when it comes to your business, you know we'll stop at nothing.

wow. big nft day. what have we learned christie's will announce who bought people's nft for $61 million, so stick through cnbc through that time and i'll be anchoring "the exchange. adam richmond who crafted the nft experience for gronkowski stressed the importance of linking nfts to non-digital experiences and items. i think that could be key for this market. >> yeah, and don't forget the nifty gateway twins, right they say there has to be a certain quality and they won't make just anything into a nifty and carl, one of my fun takeaways was that beeple believes that digital art will fill the walls of the moma and the met. i look forward to that day >> it was interesting, guys to hear at least beeple and to some extent gronk's business partner talk about caution that this is

happening in an era in which liquidity is plentiful and how that picture may change over time when liquidity comes in might be much different and it's already on twitter today and talking about the idea of fractional interests in nfts to sell to the crowd, to give people an easier entry it will be fascinating to watch the development of all of this a great hour, guys have a good weekend. let's get to the judge. carl, thank you. welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner the diverging dow while the rate-sensitive nasdaq gets slammed again. what does it mean for your money? we'll ask tom lee and he'll be joining us today and he has a new target for the s&p 500 to reveal we'll debate that with the committee. joining me now isjanet sack ochia, and jim lebenthal broken record and the dow sets another new high today, so did the russell. big story