The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade returned to the web3 virtual world for the holiday season of 2022 with a brand-new Parade experience that included virtual galleries from five NFT projects and gave fans the power to select the first-ever NFT Macy’s Parade balloon all to raise funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

The metaverse experience will be powered by the OnCyber metaverse available to fans and collectors beginning on Thursday, November 24, at 9 a.m. EST. The virtual Parade can be accessed at macys.com/NFT and is fully accessible on desktop and mobile without the need for a crypto wallet, complicated log in or VR headset. The metaverse Parade will feature the flight of iconic Macy’s Parade balloons from the nine-decade run of the holiday march. These balloon creations were first featured as collectible NFTs made available last year in celebration of the Macy’s Parade’s 95th Anniversary.

Within the virtual Parade experience, fans can explore five galleries featuring NFT collections from Boss Beauties, Cool Cats, gmoney, SupDucks and VeeFriends. From Thursday, November 24 at 9 a.m. EST through Sunday, December 4 at 11:59 p.m. EST, fans will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite project with the winner set to become an IRL balloon in the 97th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2023. The first 100,000 fans who vote will receive a free Macy’s digital collectible. No purchase or claim to an NFT collectible is necessary to vote. Official voting rules will be available at macys.com/NFT beginning November 24.

In a second year of leveraging the power of the web3 community to make a difference in the lives of others, collectors will have the opportunity to mint a virtual gallery pass to receive an OnCyber NFT gallery space, which will be airdropped on December 5. Minting a virtual gallery pass will cost $50, with 100 percent of the purchase price benefitting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA). By employing NFT technology in this way, Macy’s is helping create a brighter future for young people by helping fuel life-changing mentoring experiences for the long term.

As the nation’s largest youth mentoring organization, BBBSA’s proven model empowers young people via mentorships whose impact lasts a lifetime. Leveraging the expertise of professionally supported mentoring experiences, BBBSA’s adult volunteers (“Bigs”) inspire young people (“Littles”) to achieve post-secondary success, strengthen mental well-being and foster an inclusive environment for all.

During the voting period, additional votes will be given to NFT collectors who choose to mint and to holders of Macy’s 2021 Parade NFTs, with voting power based on the NFT rarity of those collectibles. Holders of NFTs from Boss Beauties, Cool Cats, gmoney, SupDucks and VeeFriends will also receive additional voting power.