This year, Super Bowl LVI was the crypto world’s coming out party. Buzzy firms made bold pitches last year, and shelled out millions of dollars on ads encouraging viewers not to be afraid of this new-fangled digital investment. This year, the stakes were higher. Firms competed for the attention of a more sophisticated and skeptical audience, one that knows it can’t miss out on this exciting opportunity.
This Sunday, the industry will be watching the Super Bowl with far less noise.
Crypto enthusiasts can expect far less noise coming from the industry this Sunday during Super Bowl LVII. A year has passed since the debut of those celebrity-packed ads, and in that time the entire crypto industry has been rattled by a collapse in digital asset values. Bankruptcies began to pile up over the summer. This Sunday, the industry will be watching the Super Bowl with far less noise.
Then the real pain started.
Of the four crypto or crypto-affiliated companies that advertised in the Super Bowl last year, one (FTX) has completely collapsed. The others (Coinbase, Crypto.com and eToro) have fought against industry headwinds. Shares of Coinbase, the only publicly traded company in the group, have fallen more than 60% since its “floating QR code” ad became one of the most talked-about spots.
However, the real pain has started to set in for these companies.
FTX, the company that completely collapsed, was one of the four that advertised in the Super Bowl last year. The other three (Coinbase, Crypto.com and eToro) have been fighting against industry headwinds, but their shares have fallen significantly. Coinbase, the only publicly traded company in the group,
This year, FTX is bankrupt and under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors, so don’t expect any of those companies to be back. Etoro, a multi-asset trading platform, has confirmed to CNN that it will not be splurging on an ad this year, saying that while it continues to invest heavily in marketing, “we dial up or down specific channels based on many factors including market conditions.”
At least one crypto-adjacent newcomer will be in attendance at the upcoming Crypto Games Conference. Limit Break, a blockchain-based game developer, has secured a spot and plans to giveaway around 10,000 NFTs, or non-fungible tokens (aka one-of-a-kind digital collectibles) to viewers who scan its QR code. Limit Break, founded in 2021, said it has already raised $200 million and expects to grow “a massive global audience.”
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