A year after the "Crypto Bowl," few cryptocurrency companies are paying $6.5 million for a 30-second ad. At least there will be an NFT drop.
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A year ago, four crypto exchanges turned Super Bowl LVI into "the Crypto Bowl."
This year, none will be running an ad during the most viewed and most expensive chunk of primetime of the year.
Several had planned to do so, according to Sports Business Journal, but backed out, contributing to Fox Sports slower-than-normal sellout of its $6.5 million-for-30-seconds ads.
There are a couple of asterisks to that "none" however.
Canadian exchange BitBuy is returning with a spot featuring the NBA Toronto Raptors star Scottie Barnes. But it will air only in Canada.
While exchanges are out in the U.S., blockchain-based game developer Limit Break plans to give away 10,000 NFTs to viewers who scan a QR code during the Super Bowl — a strategy that proved to be a hit for Coinbase. It may have been classified as a gaming ad, the company's CEO told Decrypt.
Walk Away
First among the no-shows was the now-bankrupt FTX exchange, which had planned a 60-second ad costing an eye-watering $13 million for Super Bowl LVII's meeting of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
Although as sport endorsement spending goes, that was pretty tame for Sam Bankman-Fried.
He'd pledged at least $375 million on multi-year endorsements, including the NBA's Miami Heat arena ($135 million over 19 years); eSports club Team SoloMid's staggering $210 million, 10-year deal; the Golden State Warriors' $10 million annual deal; and UC Berkeley's $17.5 million, 10-year stadium naming rights deal.
All while handing $10 billion of FTX clients' funds to his privately held crypto trading firm Alameda Research after it was clobbered by bad trades, according to federal prosecutors.
Be Like Larry?
Still, the biggest remainder of FTX's ad last year is a lawsuit over what proved to be a prophetic tagline: "Don't be like Larry."
The Super Bowl LVII commercial featured Larry David pooh-poohing "new" inventions like the wheel, the light bulb and the toilet before being presented with buying crypto from FTX.
At which point he said, "Ehh, I don't think so. And I'm never wrong about this stuff. Never."
A year later, the ad still lives on in the lawsuit accusing David — along with a number of FTX spokespeople like Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Naomi Osaka and Shaquille O'Neal — of giving the failed exchange credibility and promoting unregistered securities.
Meanwhile both the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating crypto ads. The FTC for deceptive advertising and the SEC for touting securities. The latter just pulled a $1.26 million fine out of Kim Kardashian for promoting the cryptocurrency Ethereum Max without sufficient disclosures.
Where that'll land next it's hard to say, but U.S. regulators do seem to be going after high-profile, make-a-statement cases.
A Long, Cold Crypto Winter
The other three exchanges that advertised last year have had a rough time of it. Coinbase, which had the best ad right up until it was so good it crashed its servers, has seen two rounds of layoffs totalling 2,000 employees, and a stock price that fell about 60% Super Bowl to Super Bowl.
Last month, it settled a background check compliance lawsuit with New York regulators for $100 million, including a $50 million fine.
The rest also struggled against the crypto winter's headwinds, with Crypto.com laying off about 25% of its staff.
eToro, the least-well-known of the four going into the big game, only saw one round of layoffs affecting 6% over the summer — which wasn't bad in 2022.
