The Best One Yet - 🥤🍸 “Dry January became Moist January” — The Big Beverage Blur. Rogan vs Neil Part II. FTX’s $32B crypto winter.

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

The biggest Dry January ever just ended, but we noticed something strange: A bunch of new alcohol. Joe Rogan and Neil Young’s Spotify duel has ended and we have a winner. And while it’s Crypto Winter for cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin Ben has lost ½ his value since November), it’s Crypto Spring for crypto-companies (one just hit a $32B valuation).$PEP $KO $SPOTGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Tuesday, T-Boy Tuesday, February 1st. Wasn't there something you wanted to talk about before we kick off the pod? Are we going to talk about the drama from yesterday? What drama? Mayonaze Gate?

Oh, no. Are you Team Dallop or are you Team Smear on mayonnaise? Oh, I'm Team Schmere. 100%. You're Team Smear? Smear. Mew. Mew is like a great supporting actor, but like should never be in the lead role.

Chicken or tuna salad with too much mayo? No, thank you. We are Team Schmere in today's podcast. is the best one yet. For our first story, the biggest dry January ever just ended. And the alcohol industry is glad. But here's the weird thing, Jack and I notice. In the middle of dry January, big brands launched some serious wet beverages. For our second story, do you remember the Spotify, Joe Rogan, Neil Young drama from last week? This is the thing last week, everything last week. We got a big update and we have a winner. Third and final story, what do we got, Jack?

Ben the Bitcoin has shrank about 50% since November. It hurts every time. So here's what we're wondering how did crypto exchange FTX just hit a $32 billion valuation? It's either because of the crypto winter or the crypto spring or none of the above. Some serious seasonality here. Jack, fantastic mix. Snackers, before we hit that wonderful mix, though, the only time of the year when red is a good thing. Yeah, Snackers, you're going to see a lot of red today specifically today. Happy Chinese New Year everybody, a.k.a. Happy Lunar New Year, everybody. It's not just a Chinese holiday, by the way.

It's also celebrated in Vietnam, in Korea, in Malaysia, in the Philippines, in Singapore, and more East Asian countries. Get this. Nearly one out of every four human beings is celebrating the lunar New Year right now. And it's all thanks to the moon. Yeah, the moon. Snackers, the lunar calendar. It operates on a classic 12-year cycle. We're talking zodiac style starting with the new moon today. If you're born in 1962, 74, 86, 98, 2010, this is your year. The Year of the Tiger. Year of the Tiger, baby.

We're talking Beethoven, Jimmy Fallon, Queen Elizabeth, Drake. They're all Year of the Tiger. Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, both Year of the Tiger explains the chemistry from that movie.

Interesting. It makes sense. It was inevitable. Now, here's the thing. Last year was still a lot of pandemic. The ox was big in the Oregon Trail. Got knocked down a peg or two last year. Not really a thrilling animal.

On the other hand, the tiger Jack, Tiger feels pretty, pretty, pretty good. Well, the tiger's obviously strong, right? Yes. But according to Chinese New Year lore, it is also courageous and generous. Yeah, Snackers, Tiger, that's the vibe you want to channel when you're asking your boss for a 25% raise over a Taco Bell.

A tiger's not getting hurt on a thousandth Peloton ride. Yeah, no Tiger has ever been zucked by Facebook. No Tiger even downloaded Quibi in the first place. They saw what was happening and they didn't even get involved. So Snackers, deck the house and grad, grab some firecrackers, get the lanterns ready. The year of the tiger lucky numbers are one, three, and four. If your year of the tiger, your unlucky numbers are six, seven, and eight. Yeah, so let's hit our three definitely not eight stories.

Because happy Lunar New Year. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks about to hear ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so. You know, we're not recommending any securities.

It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member Fenbara slash SIPC. For our first story, the most popular dry January ever. It just ended yesterday.

But during dry January last month. Yeah. Everyone was launching new alcohol. It was a weird thing, Jack, I noticed. First of all, though, Jack, um... It's like, read the roof. Hardest part about dry January. Can you do dry January without telling everyone who's next to you,

that you're doing Dry January. That's actually not hard. That's easy. The answer's no. I'm going to pass on the Chardonnay because, you know, I'm better than you this month. You got to have like an alternative.

You got to have like a ginger thing on the side. Dry January equals heavy ice cream. Now, Snackers, dry January. It used to be your one friend, Jesse, who wanted attention. Now dry January is a cultural phenomenon. According to a survey from Morning Consult, 19% of Americans tried dry January this past month. Wow.

We're talking one out of five American adults. And according to morning consult, many more of it was damp January than like dry January. Yeah, not dry, but like not wet either. Just moist January. It's a humid January. But get this, you know, 12% participation in dry January in 2021. That was decent.

19% in 2022. That's, um, that's big, Jack. But in the middle of this really big dry January, huge dry January, we noticed a surge in launches of decidedly wet drinks. Funny timing. Dry January. but all these new wet things. First, it was Bud Light's first ever zero carb beer,

which they're calling Bud Light Next. Bud Light Next. Brewed for us. What they say is, what's next? What is next tomorrow morning when you don't want to be hung over? I don't know. This thing like pairs well with a 6 a. Wake up to head to the office and maybe a bench breast.

But the real news was the collaboration between rival brands creating new concoctions together. Okay, so like companies that you'd never think would work together were suddenly working together. Like, for example, Coca-Cola and Liquor Legend Constellation brands, they just teamed up. They're launching a new Fresca canned cocktail. They are.

They are. This is a reverse mock tap. It is. Traditionally, you know, Fresca is your non-alcoholic option. This is like, it tastes like Sprite kind of a thing. But now Constellation is throwing booze into Coca-Cola's fresco. Basically, Fresca has grown up and I grew up really quickly like this month. Coca-Cola also partnered up with Molson Coors for a spiked lemonade last month.

And they're doing this under Coca-Cola's simply juice brand. That's right. Coca-Cola is doing an alcoholic drink with their juice brand simply. It's like a child's a lemonade turned 21. But the wildest of all these new alcohol collaborations was Pepsi and Boston beer teaming up to make a boozy Mountain Dew that they are selling Jack the honors. With Taco Bell. They're selling this at Taco Bell.

All right. There's a Taco Bell exclusive Mountain Dew flavor. I don't know how I missed this. I don't know how they make this. But now that exclusive Taco Bell version of Mountain Dew. do has 5% alcohol by ball. It feels like the only person they left out of this was like TikTok to have the brand collaboration with.

It does taste like a skateboard. The only drink that yells at you. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all of our buddies in the beverage business? We are seeing the big blur of beverages. Yeah, Snackers, there is a hunt for growth right now in the drink industry because soda consumption, it's dropping. And that is scaring soda companies. But consumers are getting sober curious.

Yeah, they are. That's freaking out liquor companies. Yeah, so soft drink stars are starting to shoo. over into alcohol. And alcohol icons are starting to drift over to soda and seltzers. So here's what Jack and I are thinking about this trend. When you're forced to experiment for growth, why not share the risk? And that mindset is why we're seeing soda, alcohol, and even cannabis companies teaming up.

That is what's creating the big beverage blur. For our second story, perfectly timed, we've got part two of the Spotify Joe Rogan Neil Young drama. Spotify doesn't spin. Joe Rogan looks within. And Neil Young kind of wins. Put it on a Spotify playlist. You're like a poet laureate over there. Just came to me.

Snackers last week, Neil Young said, look, it's either me or it's Joe Rogan. Spotify, you can't have both of us on the platform. Joe Rogan has the biggest podcast on Earth. One of his guests told dangerous vaccine theories that have been debunked by scientific consensus and Neil wasn't happening. Yeah. And so Spotify, we told you.

They had a Spider-Man moment with great power as a. platform comes great responsibility. Before the weekend, it looked like Spotify had chosen Joe Rogan. Neil Young had lost. Yeah. Basically, Spotify accepted Neil's request to take all of his great music off of Spotify. Felt like a big loss for Neil. And nobody was following his lead either. No. He was like Frank the tank streaking to the quad headed to the gymnasium. Nobody was with him. We're going streaking. Neil was left out to dry and it turned out he was about to lose 60% of his streaming revenue by getting D-platform from Spotify. Now, that was on Friday.

But then this weekend happened and things changed. Neil Young got some wins. He did get some wins. Joni Mitchell, how you doing? Joni Mitchell joined the band and asked for her music to get taken off Spotify. And then you got Brunee Brown, a great therapeutic, mindful podcaster about like life. She has an exclusive to Spotify podcast. But Brne Brown decided to pause new episodes because of this controversy.

She kind of joined Neil's band too. But then things kicked up a notch again on Sunday when Spotify and Joe Rogan both talked about the issue. Spotify's CEO, Daniel Eck, he acknowledged that there is a problem that Neil Young had pointed out. Spotify hadn't published transparent policies on how they handled misinformation. Spotify had already removed thousands of podcast episodes that contained misinformation, but they just had like never explained why or like told anyone. So on Sunday, it finally explained why. They published their misinformation rules for all.

to see. We support creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users. Spotify's words. What Spotify did on Sunday is exactly what those 270 science experts called for one month ago. Exactly. It just took the pressure from Neil Young for Spotify to actually do something about it. Then Joe Rogan went onto his Instagram and posted a 10-minute video addressing the situation. Now, mostly Joe Rogan was defending his style of open conversations on sometimes controversial topics. But he also apologized to Spotify for putting them in a tough spot. Yeah, and he endorsed Spotify's move to add audio warnings before episodes of his that could contain dangerous information. And Joe Rogan promised to add more interviews with consensus scientists,

especially right after he does an interview with a fringe scientist. So at the end of the weekend, Jack and I are looking at all this. We're adding it all up. And basically, overall, you could make the argument that Neil Young kind of want. Spotify did stick with Rogan, but Neil Young affected change on the pop. Yeah, maybe he'll come back to the Spotify. Spotify platform now that he's got his goal somewhat achieved. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Spotify? Spotify just had their Facebook 2016 moment. Back in the 2016 election cycle,

Facebook was widely regarded as the top platform for spreading false information. That was the year that the world realized Facebook feeds were the primary news source for millions of Americans. Well, guess what? Today, podcasts have become the primary news and information source for millions of Americans too. And we love you guys tuning in every day. Spotify has become a great platform, which comes with great responsibility. Facebook realized all this in 2016, and Zuck is still scrambling to figure out how to responsibly deliver all the information. And Spotify and Rogan, they're realizing it now. This is Spotify's Facebook 2016 moment. For our third and final story, Bahamas-based crypto platform FTX just hit a whopping $32 billion valuation. It's crypto winter

for cryptocurrencies, but not for crypto companies. Jack, are you following? this theme that like the crypto industry loves beaches and low taxes and the two seem to go together. I've noticed. I've noticed. No surprise. FTX is based in the Bahamas where, you guessed it. Where there's no income tax. No, there isn't. Just board shorts. Founded in 2019. FtX is now, as of yesterday, the 11th biggest startup on planet Earth and one of the fastest growing companies ever. They just hit a $32 billion valuation. Yeah, they did. This is a pure crypto exchange. It's up there in size with like Coinbase, finance, and they're focused on outside the U.S. But this is your straightforward pure play crypto exchange.

Now, if you own crypto, you know that crypto prices are way down. They are. But investing in crypto companies is not way down. We bring our buddy Ben the Bitcoin and you can show off the bruises he's feeling. Bitcoin's down about 50% from the record high in November. And Doge and Ether, they're down about the same. And you know, the crypto fall, it's pretty correlated with the stock market. It's just, you know, it's a more extreme fall.

Right. Stocks are down like 10 to 20%. They are. Crypto's down 50%. But that hasn't cracked the bullishness among crypto evangelists or the entire venture capital industry. Yeah, the biggest venture capitalist still believes in Bitcoin. Yeah, and Driesen Horwitz, they got $3.1 billion in funds dedicated to investing more in crypto. Think about it. The biggest car company and fintech companies, they still believe too. Tesla's Elon Musk, Squares Jack Dorsey. They're both loving Web 3 more than ever.

Nick, even the biggest quarterback loves Bitcoin. It brings this story full circle. Jack, what's Tom Brady doing today? Oh, he's doing a lot of things. He's doing a lot of things. Not getting ready for the Super Bowl. As a Giants fan, I'm kind of happy about that. It's understandable.

But Tom Brady is an investor in FDX. Now, Snackers, everyone who we just mentioned, they've got a name for crypto's recent drop. They call it crypto winter. A crypto winter is a long, cold period. That explains why prices are so low. It's like frostbunt. And just like the frigid Bitcoin winner of 2018 and the insane winter that everyone on the East Coast is going through right now,

this crypto winter is expected to pass. Better times our head if we can just get through this cold. Which leads to our bundled up takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over and all of crypto? We hope for a crypto spring. We do. But it's no sure thing. Yeah, Snackers, Jack and I were talking about this a whole bunch before the pod.

The term crypto winter, it's kind of a bias. term. Because what comes after winter? Spring. Spring always comes after winter. Every year on the dot. So the implication of a crypto winter is that we are going to return to higher prices. It's inevitable like the spring. It's just a cold season, but April Bitcoin will be warm again. But here's the thing. There's no guarantee that a spring is coming to cryptocurrency prices. There's no guarantee that Bitcoin's hit in $100,000. Bitcoin skeptics like Jamie Diamond, they probably think this is the start of a long decline with no rebound for crypto. Jamie Diamond said as recently as October, that he thinks Bitcoin is worthless.

So he thinks its highest price has already happened and it's in the past. He may be thinking, this isn't a crypto winter. This is like a crypto crypt. He might think this is a permafrice. This is a crypto tundrum. Never changes cold forever. It's not a lot of fun. Now, Nick and I both own crypto, but we know that crypto winter implies things only get better from here.

And we know that that's not necessarily true. So Jack and I are hoping for a crypto spring, but it's no sure thing. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us over there? Alcohol and soda. They're both concerned. So they're teaming up with canned drinks. We got a new phase for beverage companies, the big blur of beverages. Spotify and Joe Rogan.

They addressed the Neil Young situation on Sunday. Yeah, and Spotify, they just had their 2016 Facebook moment. For our third and final story, Bitcoin is suffering from a crypto winter. We hope there's a crypto spring coming. Either way, it's a FTX is worth a lot of money. Now, time for our snack fact of the day slash correction in this case, sent in by Adrian Goudavar and Guillermo Gonzalez. Here we go. This is my bad. Snackers, yesterday we talked about the hot sauce industry. First of all, Jack, this is both of us. I didn't notice it either.

Oh, Nick, thank you. We shared this pain. I spilled this all over both of us. And there were no napkins in sight. The hottest selling condiment in the United States. It's been hot sauce. It's about to be ketchup. Meo is, of course, number one. but we said yesterday that chilies, we said that chili peppers were a vegetable. We were wrong. Peppers aren't vegetables. They're a fruit. I'll tell you, can you believe that peppers are a fruit?

It's hard to believe. No, I know. This is straight up in the tomato category. Well, it turns out technically peppers aren't only just a fruit. They're also berries. Okay, you got a blueberry, a raspberry, a schnazberry, and a chili pepper? Yeah, they hold multiple seeds within one fleshy fruit. So, Jack, the takeaway here, if hot sauce is made of peppers and peppers are a fruit,

and that fruit type is technically a berry, then hot sauce is a fruit juice? Oh my goodness. Hot sauce is fruit juice. If so facto, sign me up for the saracha juice cleanse. That sounds appalling. It sounds like it would be difficult. Snackers, you look fantastic.

If you haven't yet, you can drop down and you can give us five stars on Apple or on Spotify. We'll take both. Nick and I'll see you tomorrow. Happy Lunar New Year to all the tigers out there. And before we go, happy birthday to snacker Michael Seleski over in Ontario, Canada.

Sammy Collier, currently living in Provo, Utah. And Matt launched a new sports newsletter called Sideline Sprint over in Miami. Congrats to Candace, who just got into MIT Sloan for that big MBA degree. And Jeannie Casey quit her lawyer job one year ago to jump into tech. Happy quidiversary. Yeah, and Sean Tipner just got a license to practice therapy down in New Jersey. That's fantastic. And congratulations to April Wind, who just got a new job in Houston with an Instagram food side hustle.

And Ken just got a new job over in games. He's a gator. He's definitely a gator. It's great to be a Florida gator. And John and Melinda Timph, enjoy that 30th anniversary in Keller, Texas. Congratulations. And to anyone else who's celebrating today, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Pelton and Block. And we both own both Bitcoin and Ether. Robin Hood Snacks, Newsletters, and podcasts reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and do not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, cryptocurrency, or investment strategy in any account. This is not an offer or sale of a security, not a research report,

and is not intended to serve on the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc., Robin Hood Financial, LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal and past performance, does not guarantee future results. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC. It does taste like a skateboard.