Year after ‘Crypto Bowl,’ crypto ads vanish from big game

NEW YORK (AP) — How the mighty have fallen.

Cryptocurrency corporations grabbed the highlight throughout the 2022 Tremendous Bowl, with commercials from a handful of newcomers to promoting’s largest stage: FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com and eToro. Some advertising specialists dubbed it the “Crypto Bowl.”

A yr later, the trade has been humbled by an enormous downturn in crypto costs, in addition to the chapter of a number of well-known corporations.

The dramatic turnaround harkens again to 2000, when dot-com corporations resembling Pets.com ran Tremendous Bowl advertisements, solely to exit of enterprise inside a yr or two.

This yr, crypto corporations have “zero illustration,” stated Mark Evans, govt vp of advert gross sales for Fox Sports activities.

Right here’s a have a look at the crypto corporations that marketed in final yr’s Tremendous Bowl and the place they stand now:

FTX: BANKRUPT

Cryptocurrency change FTX was one in every of largest advertisers in final yr’s Tremendous Bowl, that includes advertisements that included superstar comic Larry David. Whereas on the time FTX was the world’s second or third largest crypto change, it didn’t function a big enterprise within the U.S.

Inside 10 months of the Tremendous Bowl, FTX was bankrupt. The Bahamas-based firm collapsed after traders began pulling their deposits on considerations in regards to the firm’s steadiness sheet. The corporate filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety on November 11.

FTX’s founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested and charged with defrauding clients out of billions of {dollars}. He’s scheduled to go on trial in October.

David, together with different celebrities resembling soccer star Tom Brady and basketball star Stephen Curry, was named in a lawsuit that argued their superstar standing made them culpable for selling the agency’s failed enterprise mannequin.

CRYPTO.COM: HUMBLED

Whereas Crypto.com nonetheless is working, the corporate is considerably much less wholesome than it was a yr earlier.

The Singapore-based firm introduced in January that it was shedding 20% of its workforce, on high of layoffs carried out in late 2022. The corporate additionally disclosed {that a} important a part of its property had been tied up in low-quality cryptocurrency cash just like the Shiba Inu Coin.

Like FTX, Crypto.com tried to make a reputation for itself by way of sports activities sponsorships. The corporate spent $700 million for the naming rights to the previous Staples Middle, the place the Los Angeles Lakers play. It’s now the Crypto.com Enviornment. The corporate’s 2022 Tremendous Bowl advert featured basketball celebrity LeBron James, with the tagline “fortune favors the courageous.”

Crypto.com stated its layoffs had been as a result of a “confluence of unfavourable financial developments” however its CEO positioned a major quantity of blame on the collapse of FTX.

COINBASE: IN LEGAL HOT WATER

Coinbase had one of many weirder advertisements at the least yr’s Tremendous Bowl, involving a floating QR code that might take customers to a promotion the place the corporate was freely giving tens of millions of {dollars}’ price of cryptocurrencies. Advertising and marketing specialists named it one of many extra profitable advertisements of the sport, because it took folks abruptly and stood out, although many viewers discovered it complicated.

Shares of publicly traded Coinbase have fallen by greater than 70% since final yr’s recreation. With digital currencies resembling bitcoin plunging, the corporate has seen buying and selling revenues dry up as traders have prevented shopping for crypto altogether.

The corporate additionally introduced layoffs equal to about 20% of its workforce and the corporate’s CEO has stated the corporate is bracing for what they’re calling “a crypto winter.”

Additional, Coinbase has drawn the eye of U.S. regulators. The corporate needed to pay $100 million to settle a New York State investigation into whether or not it was permitting customers to join accounts with out ample background checks. The Securities and Change Fee can be trying into whether or not to ban the cryptocurrency follow of “staking,” which had been large enterprise for Coinbase up to now.

ETORO: NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS?

The fourth crypto firm to have a Tremendous Bowl advert final yr was eToro. The corporate, based mostly in Israel, ran an advert selling “social investing.”

Not like FTX, Coinbase and Crypto.com, eToro has largely prevented any unfavourable information up to now yr. The corporate expanded its choices past crypto to permit customers to purchase shares and choices in addition to non-fungible tokens, higher referred to as NFTs.