With the FTX crypto exchange debacle in the rearview mirror, the ghost of the industry’s former major exchange is still haunting the cryptocurrency market, as it was excluded from the biggest night of the National Football League (NFL) this year.
Super Bowl LVI is a night for the crypto industry in sports. Starring in commercials during the NFL closing season, companies such as FTX, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and eToro raised the flag for the industry at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
This year in Super Bowl LVII, the crypto industry will not have representation in advertising for the big night of American football. According to some reports, the FTX fiasco, layoffs, and new legal scrutiny that has engulfed the industry led the NFL to ban the industry from the big night.
No Crypto Bowl For The Industry This Year
Mark Evans, executive vice president of advertising sales for the Fox Sports sports network, told the Associated Press that there will be zero representation from the new industry today.
Evans added that in the beginning, two crypto companies had Super Bowl ads booked and completed, while others would participate in the page line of the event, all this before the bankruptcy of FTX and the public dispute that caused a storm in the industry.
Every year, more than 100 million Americans are expected to watch the NFL championship game to crown the champion of the season, and thus, many viewers go to TV to watch commercials that are shown between the action on the field.
Last year’s Super Bowl was dubbed the “Crypto Bowl” because cryptocurrency companies ran some really cool ads. But since the bankruptcy of FTX and the indictment of its founders in a scheme to deceive investors, the industry has been abandoned due to public scandals.
Crypto exchange FTX and important companies of the crypto ecosystem bought advertising last year as part of a marketing campaign to promote and introduce cryptocurrencies to more than 100 million viewers of the event, gaining major acceptance.
Crypto companies at the event featured stars like comedian Larry Davies for FTX ads and NBA legend Lebron James for Cypto.com.
Coinbase’s ad featured a floating QR code, which attracted so much attention that the platform’s website crashed during the Super Bowl game.
The ads in the Super Bowl attracted negative attention, including the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sherrow Brown, who questioned the appearance of the ad during the commercial break of the Super Bowl and asked why this crypto ad had such a prominent appearance during the Super Bowl.
“The ad leaves a few things out. They don’t mention fraud, fraud, and theft directly,” Brown said during a February congressional hearing. “The ads don’t show that you can lose big because of crypto price changes. They don’t tell you about the high fees that crypto companies charge.
The current digital currency market capitalization is $1.4 trillion, a change of 2.9% over the last 24 hours. hours, and is still down 46% from last year. Bitcoin’s market capitalization is $449 billion, representing a 39% dominance of the market.
Stablecoin market capitalization is $138 billion and has a share of 12.14% of the total crypto market capitalization.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from Trading View.