- Coinbase’s promotional page, website, and app went dark on Sunday after its ad aired during the NFL Super Bowl
- One of a handful of high-profile crypto commercials that aired during the game.
- FTX, eToro, Crypto.com, and other companies were featured in Super Bowl commercials.
Coinbase’s site and app reportedly went down briefly on Sunday due to an influx of interest from its Super Bowl ad, but the site and app are now back up and running normally. Coinbase’s platform and app were temporarily taken offline on Sunday after the company debuted its $14 million Super Bowl ad.
The ad, which features a floating QR code box bouncing around the screen for 60 seconds, directs to a promotional page on the company’s website, which offers new users $15 in bitcoin for signing up. The ultra-minimalist retro-styled advertisement was inspired by early computer or console games from the 1970s and 1980s.
Shortly after the advertisement began airing in hundreds of millions of homes across the United States, Twitter users began reporting problems connecting to the exchange’s website and app. It is the first advertisement Coinbase has created for the sporting event.
The incident calls Coinbase’s stability during periods of high site traffic into question. The platform has been shut down several times in the last two years due to erratic trading and subsequent drops in bitcoin’s price.
#Coinbase how can you drop this ad and then for the app to crash #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/FAbvRnudsK
— Vanessa 🗺 (@rurisan) February 14, 2022
The problem, which lasted only a few minutes, has since been resolved, and users can now access the website as well as the promotional page, which includes messages such as “Less Talk, More Bitcoin” and “WAGMI.”
According to its status page, Coinbase was experiencing issues with Google Pay at the time of publication and advised customers to use alternative payment methods. While the platform’s website and app were briefly taken offline due to the surge in interest, Coinbase’s Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee tweeted on Sunday that Coinbase had experienced “more traffic” than it had “ever encountered,” forcing engineers to throttle traffic.
“We are now back and ready for you,” Chatterjee tweeted. “I’m humbled to have witnessed this.”
Other business Super Bowl commercials
Several industry participants were also present during the Super Bowl ad breaks. Larry David, a comedian, writer, director, and actor, was featured in an advertisement for crypto derivatives exchange FTX, comparing the platform to famous inventions throughout history:
As part of the campaign, FTX promised that four viewers who retweeted the ad’s official tweet would win 7.54 bitcoins — the commercial aired at 7:54 p.m. ET.
The Crypto.com exchange featured a skit in which basketball star LeBron James gives advice to his younger self:
In his moment of truth, @KingJames called it.
Fortune Favors the Brave #FFTB pic.twitter.com/Snhpit3vnh
— Crypto.com (@cryptocom) February 14, 2022
eToro’s advertisement, which promoted “social investing,” featured a swarm of flying retail traders set to a cover of “Fly Me to the Moon,” a classic 1950s ballad made famous by Frank Sinatra during NASA’s Apollo moon missions.
Canadian currency exchange Bitbuy ran an ad with its own sports star, Kyle Lowry, and Facebook and TurboTax marketing buys both mentioned cryptocurrency. In-game ad revenue for Super Bowl LV was $434.5 million last year, with an average price of around $6.5 million per 30-second segment. According to Kantar data, for every dollar spent on coveted prime time slots, an average return on investment of $4.60 was received — more than four times the initial spend.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
